Two of Heart
by L.G. Lena
Summary: A tradeoff between Suna and Konoha is made to strengthen the alliance. Sakura is the lucky, or unlucky, one chosen to be sent without her knowledge. GaaSaku
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything about or of Naruto. And this applies to all chapters of this story as well. I hate writing this thing and forget it most times, so there's all my bases covered.

Just a few quick notes about the story concerning character age:

Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto: 24

Gaara: 25

Kakashi: 38

Yeah I think the rest can be figured out based on that. Well, that's all, just a short little AN from me for once. Enjoy!

Two of Heart

Chapter One

The sand swirled lazily in an unseen breeze, twisting and turning in upon itself. Send twisters picked up here and there across teh landscape, holding for a few moments before collaspsing back to the ground. Emerald eyes narrowed as grit from one of them was flung in their direction. A slim hand tugged the wide hood of her cloak lower over her face, the kunoichi wishing she had worn the ANBU mask, no matter how stiffling it was in the heat of the desert. The wind knocked her canteen against her hip, the faint sloshing sound from within reminding the young woman how low she was on the precious liquid. With a growl of annoyance, the female ninja picked up her pace, making for the oasis she knew was hidden somewhere in the dunes up ahead.

With a grunt to the two other ANBU members accompanying her, the trio burst into a ground-eating lope. The scent of water was brought to the leader of the trio on the dry desert breeze. With another grumble of anoyance, the kunoichi pulled out her bone-white mask, shoving her cloak's hood back to tie the mask's strings securely behind her head as she fitted it into place. Vibrant pink hair streamed out behind her as the woman kept up the grueling pace. Along with the faint scent of water, had come the scents of animals and humans as well. One of her companions, a man with a flat mask adorned by three spiralling shurikens, moved up beside her as she struggled to gather in all of the all-to-conspicious hair back into her hood and assisted her. She nodded to him once before re-taking the lead and facing forward once more.

She made no other movement or sound until the oasis came into sight. A small settlement was in the process of being built it seemed along the southern shore of the fairly large pool of water. Large enough to be considered a lake, a strange thing to find in the desert. A decent wall had been built, containing a large number of tents and several houses. She paused, surveying the small village from her spot. As far as the kunoichi could see, the center of the settlement appeared to be a large bazaar or marketplace of some sort. Farmland dotted the fertile land surrounding the village up to the sand line and a few boats were fishing in the oasis. With a few quick hand signs, she sent her two teammates off to flank the village while she approached from the front, remaining unseen and undetected. She gripped the snarling muzzle of her feline mask, adjusting it one more time before her hands flashed in a rapid set of seals. Invisibility cloaked the woman as she raced towards the front gate of the village, skillfully dodging people as she drew closer to her goal. Adding a small additional amount of chakra to her feet, she leaped to the top of the gate, perching steadly in a croach on the wide arch over the open doors. She waited tensely, green eyes scanning the people coming and leaving and what she could see from here.

The earpiece crackled to life right on time. "ANBU Hawk in position."

A second's worth of pause, and it crackled again. "ANBU Shuriken in position."

Quickly the woman pressed her mic to respond back, voice rough and hoarse from whispering and disuse. "ANBU Leopard in position. Move in and search for targets, we have one hour. No one is to be seen, heard, or noticed. Two taps to the mic and codename for whoever finds them. When the call comes in, the other two are to retreat 2 kilometers due south of the gate and wait. Three taps to mic and codename if you need assistance. Move out."

Radio silence answered her. The ninja slipped one hand into a hidden pocket, withdrawing three small squares of patterned cloth. Strange kanji marked up one side on each, and it was to this side the she applied blood from her thumb after slicing it open on a kunai. Closing the hand holding the scraps of bloody material into a fist, she opened it again to allowed three multi-coloured butterflies fly out. With a thought, she sent the fluttering bugs off in different directions before beginning her own search. The young woman kept to what shadows she could, utilizing rooftops when possible. The mission had been given to retrieve two A-class missing nin from Konoha. There had been no details other then they'd been reported as missing nin for a week now, codenames Fox and Hyena. The pink-haired ninja silently cursed herself for not getting to know her fellow ANBU members better. She could only remember these two's masks in passing, nothing about them in particular. Granted, she barely even knew her own team's faces outside of their ANBU masks too.

A twinge within her mind from one of her three spies had the pink-haired woman changing direction and dashing rapidly in its direction. She weaved between tents, half-built buildings, and piles of more building supplies towards the center of town, eyes seeking the bright jewel colors of her butterfly. She spotted it on the other side of the bazaar, floating above the heads of two cloaked figures who appeared to be purchasing something from a food stand of some sort. Summoning the butterflies back to her, she dismissed them while watching the two closely, tucking the three scraps of cloth the bugs and returned to into her pocket. Pressing into and melding with the shadows, the kunoichi waited until they had finished purchasing their items and left the area, silently trailing them.

Familiar laughter floated from one of them, followed by an equally familiar grunt. A scowl twisted the kunoichi's lips as she harshly turned on her mic and tapped it twice. "ANBU Leopard." It was all that would be needed to make her two teammates disengage from the village and head to the rendevous.

No longer masking her chakra, the woman stepped out into the open behind the two, who immediately stiffened and cautiously looked behind them at the sudden flare of angry chakra. "Sasuke, what's the date?"

The mask effectively masked her voice, warping it and hollowing it out. "A week since you should have been back." She snapped. "So, you two are the famed ANBU Fox and Hyena. I should have guessed it was you two bakas. I THOUGHT I told you NOT to force me to come after your hides again."

"Hn, baka. You said you would keep track of the days." Sasuke muttered, unknowingly fingering a spot on his jaw where the ANBU kunoichi had punched him last time. A glance to the side showed Naruto with an arm wrapped around his midsection, a remembrance of the two broken ribs he had received in their first scuffle with the female. They were fortunate the vicious female had recognized them this time instead of taking them as serious traitors or wanted nins from the bingo books.

"I don't know why the Hokage insists on sending me everytime to haul your asses home. Well, hurry up, you know the drill by now. This is what, the seventh time now?" She grated out, hissing.

"Sixth." Sasuke muttered under his breath, earning a glare from the feline ANBU.

She pointed one gloved finger behind her. "Go!"

Naruto stared at her, scratching the back of his head. "...uhh...?"

"ANBU Hawk and Shuriken are waiting for you. I have more pressing matters to attend to then babysitting you two dolts." She held back a cough as her throat turned scratchy from over-use, keeping a stern look on them. She didn't like the analyzing look Sasuke was giving her.

She had never told them, never told anyone that she had made it into ANBU. Only Tsunade knew the true identity of ANBU Leopard, and that was how Sakura wanted to keep it. ANBU was the real her, the one who didn't have to put on a cheerful facade, make chit-chat, do stupid girly things. That was the Sakura that they knew, the mask she portrayed to keep them happy. But it still wasn't her, hadn't been her since Sasuke had first left. Even after he had returned, three years later, the damage had been done and was set. The girl had trained constantly, under all sorts of teachers. Taijutsu from Lee, ninjutsu from Kakashi, tracking from Kiba. It all blended together in her memories, all of it leading up to what she was now. Cool, calm, strong, and leader of her own ANBU team, with no one the wiser as to who Leopard was. Not even Kakashi had recognized her when his team and hers had been placed on a mission together. It had been exhilirating, knowing that her ex-sensei would never link her new self to the old weak girl she used to be. And that he had treated her as an equal had been doubly nice.

Unfortunately, some aspects of her new self had leaked into her facade she presented to the world while maskless. Too many comments had been made to her of her lack of speaking, wounds that she shouldn't be getting from missions she said she was on, why she wore sleeves to her elbows even in a heat wave. She couldn't tell them her little secret though, that she was too comfortable in her role as the silent killer, the wounds were from A and S-ranked missions, that the sleeves covered her ANBU tattoo. _It'll die down before long._ She leaned her weight to one leg as she watched her two misguided friends sulkingly leave the village. _You'd think two weeks of vacation would be enough to have them chaffing at the bit to get a new mission._ She sighed, shaking her head a little before leaving the settlement herself. Those two would have no problem making it back to her team members and getting back home while she completed her second mission. Sakura briefly touched two fingers to one of the pockets in her vest, assuring that the scroll was still there.

The woman paused briefly upon exiting the village to re-fill her canteen and double-check on her main objective. "Hawk, are the targets in your possession?"

Yelling and the sounds of scuffling came through the earpiece. Along with a heavy sigh from her teammate. "Hai. And killing each other again. Shuriken, break them up."

She chuckled softly. "Good. Have a fun journey back. Breaking off radio now."

Sakura could swear she felt waves of sarcasm coming her way from the direction of the four as she plucked the earpiece and mic from herself and slipped them into one of her several pockets. With a faint smile still twisting her lips, she pushed up from the ground and began to run once more, this time to the northeast of the village and its oasis. Towards the Suna, the Hidden Village of Sand. With the wind now at her back, the kunoichi was making good time, good enough to possibly reach the village by nightfall if luck held out. And if no sandstorms decided to kick up and force her to take shelter. Of course, even if that type of storm kicked up, she would most likely continue to press onward. That oasis had been the last water stop before Suna in the direction she was travelling in, making it a necessity to arrive in the hidden village on time.

No clouds rolled across the still sky, the sun beating mercilessly down. The land warped and twisted slightly to her vision as heat waves floated from the sand, that same heat leaking through her sandals and burning the soles of her feet. Eyebrows drew together in frustration at the thought of needing medical attention possibly before she could return home. _Oh well, no way around it but to go faster and hope it doesn't get too bad. If all else fails, I'll just heal myself._ The wasn't the top medical nin of Konoha for a reason, though healing herself took twice as much chakra then it did for others. Something with the chakra circulation system that caused it to not be as effective on herself. And with the chakra she was currently burning to run faster, it may mean she would have to stay in the Suna village an extra day if she had to use her last bits towards healing.

Sweat rolled down her neck as the sun continued its progression through the sky and the young female continued to run, shoving her mask to rest on top of her head. The thing was too hard to breathe in, in a heat like this. _I should have traveled by night, but then that would just delay me even more._ It was too late now anyway to contemplate what she should have or should not have done. The pink-haired woman instead focused her attentions on the shifting sands and listened for any signs of danger while watching the sun progress through the sky.

It was late evening by the time the Village of Sand was revealed beyond the sand dunes. Unlike with the settlement though, Sakura approached the city openly, slowing to a brisk walk as she drew close enough to see the two guards posted at the entrance. They tensed, kunai and shuriken readied in their hands as the female ninja halted several paces away from them, keeping her hands out to the side and in plain sight. No need to spook the enemy nins into an attack. Moving her left hand slowly and as non-threateningly as possible, the woman retrieved the mission scroll from its pocket and showed the two the seal of the Hokage on it.

"I bear a message from the Hokage to the Kazekage."

Muttered words were exchanged between the two Sand ninjas before one motioned for her to follow him, the other returning to his post. Sakura nearly sighed in relief as her escort led her through the winding streets towards the Kazekage's tower silently. The last time she had come to Suna on a mission, her escort had babbled needlessly on about nothing and pestering her with questions. It was worse then Naruto almost, and ranked up there as one of her most-hated missions to date. The two stepped inside the tower just as the last sliver of sun descended behind the horizon.

"If it isn't my favorite, lovely Leaf kunoichi come to pay me a visit!"

Sakura groaned to herself as a large, rather round accountant of the Kazekage waddled quickly over to her, arms wide for a hug. She side-stepped him lithely, green eyes rolling behind her mask in annoyance. "Sorry Akira, nothing for you this time. I'm here for the Kazekage."

The man pouted, waving a hand to dismiss the ninja that had escorted her here. "Alas, my forest blossom has forsaken me for someone younger and stronger I see. Well, follow me. He should still be in, knowing him."

_ Younger? I'm surprised, I thought all Kage's were old. Well, except for the Fourth Hokage. Hmm, maybe I should have kept up an eye on foreign politics and less on medical research. Pfft, yeah right._ They stopped outside of a large mahogany door, Akira pounding on it twice.

"What?"

Sakura started, muscles tensing at the voice. _I know that voice! But from where?!_ She racked her brain for the answer, not liking the nervousness that came from the tone of the voice. "Messenger from Konoha here to see you."

The door creaked open, swinging inward to reveal a dark room covered in shadows. A body stood beside one of the numerous windows of the office, staring out of it and down to the sprawling village below. Akira bowed, backing out of the room with a wink and smile of encouragement to the young woman. The kunoichi stood stiffly where she was as the door clicked shut softly behind her. It wasn't until the man motioned for her to come forward that she moved to place the mission scroll on his cluttered desk, steps brisk and straightforward. Behind her mask, she tried to see through the shadows to find the details of his face, looking for that last clue to place who he was.

She gasped as the man flipped a switch on the well next to him, blindingly bright light flooding the office immediately. Forcefully, she made her eyes open against the stinging light filtering through her eye slits, focusing her blurry vision on the man now standing at the desk, casually breaking the seal on the scroll to read it. Years of strict training and discipline was all that prevent the second vocalization of surprise from escaping her throat. Emerald eyes swept over his form in shock, comparing the current sight with the memory of him when he was younger, noting the obvious changes. His hair had grown longer, still unruly as before and the same shade of red. He towered over her by at least a head now and he had filled out with more muscle, though the man stilled had that slightly-too-slim look to him. Where his face had once been boyishly round, it had sharpened to high cheekbones, defined features, and a fatally handsome face to most women.

_ Gaara. And I thought Kakashi was handsome! This is a whole new level though._ She frowned at the though and moved her eyes determinantly away from his lips to his eyes, receiving another shock. They weren't dead and emotionless this time, there was life there and more importantly, sanity. Dark rings still circled them, but even those had diminished a tad. She was blatantly staring and glad her mask hid it as several emotions chased through those eyes. Annoyance, curiosity, and lastly amusement. And when his lips curved ever-so-slightly into a smile, Sakura had to applaud herself for not fainting dead away.

_ Oh, that smile is dangerous._

"Like what you see?"

His smiled curved up a bit more to see the female flinch at his question. He didn't need to see her face to feel her stare on him. And from the information on the scroll, it was natural to assume this particular woman had been staring. Still, he couldn't place this obviouisly dangerous ninja in his mind, as being the same pink-haired genin that had failed to beat the Chuunin exam so long ago. He flicked his wrist, tossing the scroll towards and watching as a hand snapped up to snatch it, quicker then he could follow. "It says you should read it if I agree to the Hokage's request. Which I do."

Just as Sakura had been fascinated with watching the emotions flit through his eyes, Gaara found himself similarily amused. Especially when the shocked outrage caused her hands to tremble. The man swore he could pratically feel the waves of murderous intent spreading out from the kunoichi. She clenched her fist, the scroll crumpling slightly and she hissed her displeasure. _How could Tsunade do this to me?!_ Eyes scanned the piece of paper once more, just to be sure she had read it correctly.

_Kazekage,_

_ I am pleased to see by your last response you too recognize the situation as well. The alliance is being strained between our shinobi. I have sent this message with one of my top kunoichi, best medical ninja, and my personal student. I request a trade-off for the period of a year. My nin will remain there as a token of our good intentions, and you send one of your top nins here. Hopefully the presence of one of our nins in the other's village will give our individual villages the time to adjust and get to know about the other and strengthen your ties. You had also mentioned possibly asking for the aid of one of our medical nin coming to Suna to train your own medical staff there. Sakura can adeptly perform such a feat. If you accept my proposition, send your reply back with the ninja meant to be staying in Konoha and allow Sakura to read this._

_Tsunade_

_P.S. Duck when she looks up from reading this._

Her eye twitched spasmically. _What's that mean, to duck?!_ She leveled a glare up at Gaara, who immediately crouched down as the scroll went whipping past him, a kunai lodged in its center. The sand-user smirked before rising again. "You are displeased?" A chill went up his spine, making him quite sure she was doing her damned best to glare him into a bloody, painful death.

"I am not happy with this." Came the hollow voice. "But I must respect the wishes of my Hokage."

_ She is different._ Gaara mused to himself. Jade eyes looked to the clock on his desk, annoyed with the late hour. Everyone but a few cleaners and secretaries would have already left. He'd have to take the woman himself to where she would be staying. "Come. I'll show you where you can stay."

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AN: Aye, first things first. I know, horribly OOC, but I'm trying to write this as if they were older and had changed dramatically. So, Sakura is more like Gaara now, where he's become more talkative. Just a little bit though, don't worry. I won't ruin Gaara's name or his lovely personality. So yeah, tell my what you thought about it, where I need to touch up my writing at. I accept all criticism gladly as it improves my writing, except for things on such stuff as: Pairing, stupid grammar errors I make once or twice in a chapter between its and it's. It's really pointless to show that one to me, its the same stupid word just with no ' in one of them. And I also don't need one's that just say, "Such-and-such would never do that. Horrible story." That isn't constructive or productive to me in anyway. So, that said, I really hope you enjoy reading this. I'm loving writing it. Ja ne! Lena


	2. Chapter 2

Review Replies:

Animequeenofthenight: Glad you're liking it, and I'll hopefully be updating this at a pretty good pace.

Sweetassassin: Lol, I love doing quirky things at my endings

Suchabaka: Aww, thanks so much!

Kana:

Alligatorallied24: Aye, aye. I know I have a bad habit of abandoning, but I promise to try very hard not to do that with this one.

Emptyspaces: I shall do my best not to, even if I have to throw scrolls at you to keep your attention.

Theryu: As you command, a new chapter is up.

Chapter 2

To Sakura's surprise, Gaara didn't lead her to some inn or such outside of the tower, simply leading her down one floor from where his office was to be found. The hallway he led her down was long, a few doors leading off of it. It was to one of these that the red-haired man stopped, sending a tendril of sand into the keyhole to unlock it. "You may stay here for the entirety of your stay, or until you find your own accommodations if you feel uncomfortable here."

The woman made no move to step past him and to the door, causing him to frown internally, so he pushed open the door with one hand himself. She waited till he stepped back before sliding into the room, giving a respectful cursorary look before returning her attention to the Kazekage. In truth, the room was beautifully made and finely furnished. Much more so then a common guest room should be. Still, the kunoichi could look around more when she was alone and had placed seals of protection up around the door and windows. Gaara watched her, arms crossed and face impassive. "It is satisfactory."

A slight widening of one eye was all the indication of him giving his equivalent to a raised eyebrow. _This girl has changed since we last met._ A brief nod was given to her. "Good. Come see me in the afternoon tomorrow and we shall discuss how you may assist me with my medics."

"Hai."

Jade eyes narrowed briefly at her before the redhead turned away, walking down the hallway towards his own rooms. Until a deep growl made him turn around again, a smirk quickly appearing at what was surely a mortified ninja. Sakura's stomach gave another grumble of displeasure, drawing her attention to the fact she hadn't eaten since the morning, and even then it had been a light on-the-go breakfast as she hurried to her mission. _Kuso! I didn't bring any money with me either, I was expecting to be on my return trip home by now._ Heat flooded her face as Gaara continued to observe her with that infuriating smile. To his credit though, he didn't laugh or express his amusement at her in any other form and pulled out some coins from a hidden pocket, lightly tossing them to her.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to pay me back."

A trickle of familiar rage coiled deep inside her at his arrogant attitude, growing larger as he sauntered down the hall to a door two doors down from hers, stepping in and shutting the door. Still, he was right, there was no way Sakura would allow herself to remain indebted to Gaara, not even a dinner's worth of debt. _Well if he expects me to train his medics, I'll be damned if I do it for free for him._ A belly grumbled again, takingher mind firmly away from thoughts of tomorrow and back to her present need of food. She sighed heavily, taking off the small pack tied around her waist and setting it beside the door. _At least I brought a change of clothes. Maybe I can talk Gaara into givng me an advance on payment so I can get more._

Pricking her finger neatly on a kunai, she quickly wrote symbols in her blood along the doorway before preforming several hand sign. As the blood glowed and faded into the door, she gave a quick nod in satisfaction before closing the door and heading towards the exit of the tower. It may not keep someone as powerful as the Kazekage out, but the seal would effectively guard against most intruders. Tallying the coins she had been tossed, a wide grin broke over her face at seeing there was likely enough for a real meal, not one of ramen or fast-food.

Humming happily, she let some of her rigidness leave her muscles, nearly skipping down the hallway. It wasn't often she was able to enjoy a real meal, usually having to eat on the run. Between the hospital at Konoha and the increase in ANBU missions the last year, the woman was lucky to get a decent meal in once a week. Once outside, Sakura slipped the mask off her face, placing it into a pouch dangling on her hip. No one knew her here except for the three sand siblings and wearing a Konoha ANBU mask would only bring more attention to her then if she went without it. Even more so then her pink hair. The night had cooled the air pleasantly and it appeared most of Suna had turned out to enjoy the clear night. Emerald eyes scanned the crowds with faint interest, noting how many wore pale earthen tones, where her home villagers preferred bright colors. The two countries were neighbors, but their cultures were already apparently vastly different.

Light spilled onto the street from the open doors of a restaurant, beckoning to her as tantalizing scents escaped from within. With singular purpose, Sakura walked straight into the place. It was packed, one of the more popular places to dine at it appeared. There were still a few open tables though and the only people waiting in front of her was a couple. She tapped her fingers against her arms as she waited for a waitress, shifting her weight from one foot to the next. Hunger always wrecked havoc on her patience.

"How many?"

She snapped back to herself, coming face-to-face with a waitor, waiting patiently for her to answer. "Oh. One please."

He waved her to follow him as he wound his way through crowded tables. "You're new to Suna, aren't you?"

"...Yes."

The young man laughed at her suspicious tone. "Your clothes give you away."

The waitor stopped beside a table next to one of the windows overlooking the street, setting down a menu. "I'll be back when you're ready."

She raised an eyebrow at being given a four-person table to herself before sitting down and picking up the menu. Hungrily her eyes skimmed over the menu, only recognizing a few of the items on it. She frowned, unable to decide what to get when she didn't know what any of the stuff was. _I could just pick one and hope its good I suppose. With how hungry I am, I'm sure even Naruto's cooking would taste good right about now anyway._ Eyes scanned the items once more before picking something that looked appetizing, in name at least, and the woman looked around for her waitor. A flash of red by the door instead drew her eyes, causing them to widen considerably as the three sand siblings stepped into the same place she was dining at. _What are they doing here?_ The blonde looked her way, starting at seeing the pink-haired kunoichi.

Sakura squirmed as Temari tapped on her youngest brother's shoulder, motioning to the Konoha ninja. He nodded and Temari was quite abruptly bouncing over to her, anger and joy flashing in her eyes, the two men lazily following. "Sakura-chan!! You didn't tell me you were in town!"

In a very Naruto-like gesture, Sakura scratched the back of her neck nervously. "I know, I know. I meant to, really I did. But I just got in and well, I had a mission before the one that brought me here and well...I was hungry." She explained sheepishly.

The Sand kunoichi quickly slid into the seat across the table from the other woman. "Ah, I can understand that. Well, judging by the lack of wounds and signs of any sort of scuffle, am I correct in assuming you were sent to retrieve the two dobes again? Oi, hurry your asses over here." The blonde barked at her brothers. "You don't mind if we sit with you do you?"

Sakura shook her head. Truth be told, she liked having company with her for dinner. And it was true that every mission she had gotten to Suna, Sakura had found some way to visit with Temari, even if it was only for an hour. "And yes, it was those two again. I swear, I'm their eternal babysitter." A clunk sounded beside her as Gaara dropped his gourd down next to the table, sitting next to her. "So what are you three doing out?"

"Oh, I decided we needed to spend more time together as a family." Temari grinned, ignoring her brothers' looks of suffering.

Kankuro sighed heavily. "Once a week she drags us out somewhere." He looked Sakura over. "Although, I must say this has probably been her best choice yet. Ow!" The pained shinobi rubbed the back of his head, shrinking away from his sister as she raised her fist in a threatening gesture.

"Kankuro, I'd rather not you scare away our new medic teacher." Gaara said quietly, reaching over to pluck the menu away from Sakura.

"Sakura's staying?!"

Gaara grunted his assent, flagging down the waiter, who gave a surprised look to find four, not one, people at his table. "Hey, Temari. What's good?" Sakura asked as the two boys gave their orders.

"Don't worry, I'll order for you."

The pink-haired woman nodded, trusting her friend to know about her distaste of strong spices and really hot foods. Instead she settled for quietly listening to the three sibling's conversation, answering when she was required to. When the food arrived, she was surprised with how good her's was, a variety of meats and vegetables sauteed with several sauces. She was plowing through the meal, keeping half an ear on the other's talking when a pair of chopsticks darted in to steal the piece of chicken she had been going for. Her eyes darkened in anger as the woman looked for the culprit, but the other three kept chatting, really though it was only Temari and Kakuro. With an unnoticeable shrug, she went back to her meal, until again the chopsticks stole from her. This time though, she caught the smug look on the other woman's face.

So, being a ninja and naturally doing what a ninja should do when something has been stolen from her, and started attacking the blonde's plate. It was a game, who could get away with stealing from the other without being caught by the one they were stealing from. And it was only natural that any ninja watching the game should join in the training game. Of course, when it is one male going up against two females, said male shinobi should really know better then to try. Gaara sighed inwardly as he watched the two women thoroughly beat his brother at their game, leaving Kankuro to whine about needing seconds. Of course, when a set of indigo and a set of emerald eyes turned viciously on him, he had the good sense of setting up a wall of sand between him and the rest of the table to finish his meal in peace.

"Spoilsport." Temari growled.

Experimentally Sakura prodded the sand wall with the ends of her own chopsticks, causing Gaara to lean back and tap the back of her hand with his set. "Mine." He said simply. He watched impassively as she growled at him. _Perhaps she hasn't changed so much as I thought._

As quickly as the thought had come, it vanished as the anger was suddenly wiped off her face, leaving it blank and calm as it had been before. It was a look that reminded him of something, something personal. He tilted his head to the side slightly, staring at her. It reminded him of..._Me. That's the same look I use._ He looked away, dropping a few coins on the table. He stood up, reaching for the strap of his gourd.

"Done already, Gaara?" Kankuro asked.

"Hn."

"We all are, except for you. You take too long, you know that." With that said, the blonde shoved her chair back to stand up, slinging her fan to its resting place on her back. "Come on, Kankuro. You're fat enough as is." She looked up to Sakura as the Konoha ninja stood up as well. "Hey, Sakura! Wanna help me talk these two into sparring for a bit?"

"Sorry, Temari. I'd really rather just go to sleep, I had a work-out this morning with Neji. Tomorrow perhaps?" Sakura offered, tugging her cloak on and flipping the hood up.

"See you then. Prepare to get your ass handed to you though."

"That's what you said last time, and I recall I was the one who won."

The two girls continued their playful bickering as they left, standing outside the restaurant for a moment to reaffirm their vow of a sparring session the next night. The three siblings parted with the ANBU woman, Gaara hanging back for a moment. "10am in my office tomorrow."

"Hai, hai Kazekage-sama."

"Gaara." Sakura paused, looking back at the man in confusion. "Just Gaara." The sand-user reaffirmed.

She nodded once. "Alright. Goodnight, Gaara-kun." With a flicker, she had disappeared from sight, racing towards the promise of a comfortable bed and a decent night's sleep. He stared at the spot she had been in for a moment longer, before turning to follow his more eccentric siblings.

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The bed had been everything she had wanted and more, complete with a feather comforter and pillows. The alarm clock had been a nice, and cruel, addition to her room. And while she had been glad to have one to make sure she wouldn't oversleep, the annoying blaring coming from it was making her want to stick a kunai through the machine and gut it. Hazy eyes glared at the squawking thing as she smacked the button to turn it off, reading the numbers. 4:00am. _Just fucking great._ Sakura grumbled to herself, yawning and stretching within the warm confines of the blanket.

A glance out the bedroom window showed the sky still pitch-black, some hours away from dawn, the village outside dark and silent. Slipping out of the warm bed, she padded her way into the bathroom. A brief look around the night before had shown her that the apartment was quite extensive and above and ordinary guest lodging. It was complete with bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and living room area.

Turning the shower on, she hopped in the moment the water had heated enough and scrubbed fiercely at the dirt on her skin and streaked through her bubblegum hair. The woman didn't allow herself the luxury of relaxing under the hot stream, shutting it off and towelling dry as soon as she was clean. Wrapping a towel around her body, Sakura walked back to her room to pull on her spare set of clothes after tightly binding her chest.

_I still have that money Gaara-kun gave me. Maybe its enough to get a new shirt._ Ahe hummed a tuneless song to herself, padding into the kitchen on the off-chance that there would be food in it. She sighed after opening all the cabinets and fridge though. The food fairy had conveniently by-passed her apartment. _Maybe that shirt I wanted will have to wait afterall._

A glance at the clock on the stove showed the time at 4:24. _I get up too damn early._ Leaving the depressingly bare kitchen, Sakura instead proceeded to strap on her various weapons and weapon holders. _Still, it does gaurantee me enough time for a good training session and enough time for another quick shower._ Adjusting her katana to its resting place on her back between her two shoulderblades, she slipped her leopard mask into place and exited the apartment. It was almost like being back in Konoha, her routine the same every morning, never changing.

The hair along her arms rose in alarm and muscles tensed in preparation of flight or fight. An immense chakra was flucuating wildly to her left, spasmadically flickering in time to the sounds of soft whimpers and hushed, broken words. Emerald eyes slowly looked towards the source, narrowing in the darkness to see. A figure was pressed against the wall, hands cradling thier head. A distinct trembling would sweep through the figure at regular intervals. She crept forward silently until she was able to make out the wild, jade eyes gleaming with a feverish glow and the russet hair tightly gripped in his hands.

"Gaara-kun?" She called softly.

Those feral eyes snapped onto her and he snarled, sand rising to whipe aroundhim angrily. She held up her hands soothingly, humming softly as she would with a wild animal, slowly inching towards him. As an added measure, the kunoichi used one hand to begin stripping herself of weapons and mask to make herself look as non-threatening as possible. Besides, if he attacked in this state, there was really nothing she could do. His chakra alone let her know how powerful he was. But the man didn't attack, instead sliding down the wall he was pressed against to crouch on the floor.

She remembered Temari had mentioned in the past to her about Gaara. It had to have been more then a year ago now since that day, but the medic remembered the other woman mentioning her younger brother having these...'fits'. She had been asking Sakura for medical advice and help on the matter, but the Konoha ninja couldn't help or offer any knowledge on the subject. She herself had never heard or witnessed such a thing after all. The most she could assume was his mind was still fragile and shattered even after the removal of Shukaku, causing him to have these sessions. Sakura had never expected seeing Gaara inone of his episodes personally, having little to no contact with him over the last eight years. But seeing this, she wondered if it wasn't something more serious then a mind trying to re-establish itself as pure human.

_Don't let him sense or see fear. Keep calm and slow._ She chanted the two sentences to herself, his eyes still boring into her. She stopped when he tensed, calmly waiting until the man had relaxed to his original state before easing forward again until he re-tensed, continueing the cycle. HIs shaking had stopped for the most part, returning only when the waves of pain crashed through his frame. By her estimation, it took her nearly an hour to cross the twenty feet of space seperating the two to get within touching distance of him.

Silently, Sakura bore the pain and stings of the whirling sand striking in to her as she crouched down nect to him, balancing on the balls of her feet and bringing her eyes level with his. They were clearer then before, something faintly human and sane in them now. His eyes flickered rapidly as she brought on slim hand up to his face, teeth grinding audibly. _Stay CALM!_ Sakura growled in her mind at herself as an unpleasant image of Gaara sinking his teeth into her hand popped up. As her fingertips just brushed his cheek, Gaara froze up, sucking in a breath harshly.

Moving quickly lest he bolt or come at her, she gently pushed her chakra into him in healing tendrils, smoothing away what felt like to her chakra, the pain of an immense migraine. She frowned as she placed her whole hand against him, palm cradling his face as she soothed away the pain. But there was something wrong inside his head, not his mind but inside itself, a physical damage. Her eyes had closed as she healed him, but she opened one eye to find the Kazekage calm and relaxed, awareness flickering in the depths of his eyes. She sent her chakra circulating through his, noticing again that there seemed to be physical damage on the inside. And the damage was done in a way she'd never seen before.

"Haruna-san?"

Sakura blinked at her name, pulling herself away from him. "Feel better now?"

Gaara blinked, looking around in confusion before memories washed back over him. He grimaced, looking away from her before he saw the pity, the disgust to be found directed at him by her. He cleared his throat, rising to lean against the wall. "I am...I apologize you had to witness that, Haruna-san. I must go."

"Wait!" He paused from where he had been walking away, but gave no other indication. "I think...I think I know what's causing it."

That caught his attention, and he slowly turned around to face her, arms crossed as he waited. All the medics in Suna had found no cause for his random episodes, saying it was simply stress and anger causing them. But none had given him a solution to the problem. "Could I do an examination on you? Just to see?"

"Hn."

"Is that a yes or a no?" Sakura asked, crossing her own arms.

Remarkably, one side of his mouth twitched upwards in a smirk at the anger that was concealed in that question. "Yes. Tonight." She started to protest that she could do it now, but he had already started to walk away again. "I shall see you in a couple of hours, Haruna-san. Don't be late."

"Sakura! Just Sakura." She blinked, recalling his words last night. Still, she hated being called by her surname, it reminded her too much that she had only herself. He gave no indication of hearing, simply vanishing in a swirl of sand. _What an arrogant prick sometimes._ She grumbled, before turning her thoughts to what she had discovered about the Kazekage.

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AN: Another chapter done and over with. Not too much to say, other then thanks for reading and again, I appreciate any constructive critism or praise. Hope your still enjoying it and yes, I do realize that Sakura and Gaara are both going through some massive mood swings. I'm personally loving it, switching around who's the talkative and playful one and who's the quiet loner. Anywho, ja ne! Lena


	3. Chapter 3

Review Replies:

EternalDeni: Oh! Thank you! Sorry about that mispelling, won't do it anymore though, thanks.

Hearts of Eternity: Hope this chapter answered your questions

SweetAssassin: So was the cause of his suffering close to what you were thinking it was?

Lyneia: Haha, eventually yes they will find out. Might even make Kakashi put her through a bell test to see how good she really is. Umm, I believe this chapter should have answered that last question of yours.

empty-spaces: Hmmm...hold on. hold on! Lemme just fix some lead weights to this first scroll so I can run away while you're knocked out...

ViKeiBunneh: Glad to see a new reader, hope you stay interested.

Chapter 3

A light sheen of sweat covered her skin when Sakura finally stopped for the day, slipping her katana back into its sheath and strolling around the training area to collect her kunai and shuriken. Brushing her hair back into a ponytail, she picked up the last of her equipment before moving into a run that would lap the village twice. Normally, she's enjoy a run of about 50 to 100 laps, but with her appointment with Gaara coming up, she'd just have to be satisfied with a an extremely brief run. She let her mind wander as the wind whipped her hair behind her. _I hope Tsunade-sama told Naruto and the others where I went._ She knew how much the fox-boy worried about her, it was one of the main reasons why she had yet to tell him about her ANBU status. If he worried about her this much when she told him she was only doing A and B-ranked missions, it would only be worse if he found out the real truth.

_I wonder if I should tell him I've been thinking of taking a Hunter Nin position. Course, that doesn't really matter now, I'm stuck here for the next year._ She sighed, forcefully changing the direction of her mind. She mulled over again, for at least the sixth time this morning, what she had found earlier. Nothing could fascinate her more at times, then a medical problem. She raked over her knowledge, comparing the damage she had discovered inside Gaara's body and mind with prior wounds that looked similar. _The closest I can think of them being, are being similar to the wounds that one jounin recieved from a tiger. But these appeared to come from within outwards, which makes no sense at all._

The shadow of the Kazekage's tower interrupted her, her subconcious bringing her there precisely on time. She stopped briefly at a bathroom she had discovered while wandering around the tower early that morning, washing the dried sweat and dirt from her face and arms. No, Sakura didn't care so much about her physical appearance as she used to, but the kunoichi still liked to be at least somewhat presentable. _Maybe I'm just a little bit vain still._ She smirked to herself as she raked her fingers through her hair to tame it down before re-tying it back up into a high ponytail. Leaving the bathroom, she strode up the steps leading to the fifth floor where his office was, brushing past his secretary who called for her to stop.

"I have an appointment."

"You can't just barge into Kazekage-sama's office!"

"Watch me."

True to her word, she walked up and shoved the doors open, exactly at the moment the clock ticked over to 10am. Gaara looked up from the document he was skimming over in irritated amusement. No one who wasn't related by blood to him had ever just walked right in without his permission. This woman was either very brave, or she was still spending most of her time with Naruto and his stupidity had leaked over to her. He noticed the impassive stubborn-ess in her eyes, apparently the Uchiha had had a hand in this new attitude too, perhaps. She stood in front of him smartly with her back ramrod straight, right hand clasping left wrist in front of her, eyes staring straight ahead.

"At least tardiness can't be counted along with your lack of manners or respect." Came his dry remark, taking his time to finish the document and sign it. He noted that she hadn't moved a muscle out of line, smirking as he slowly shuffled papers and organized his desk. _Well she's learned a lot more control since last I saw her._ Indeed, the woman still hadn't moved even after 15 minutes of pointless arranging and reading had gone by. "Sit." He motioned to a seat in front of the desk.

What the Kazekage couldn't know, was that Sakura had long since fine-tuned herself to slip into a light meditative state while waiting to be acknowledged. With a sensei and Hokage like Tsunade-sama, one became accustomed to waiting for up to hours at a time to be acknowledged or for her to simply wake up or sober up enough out of her drunken haze. Fifteen minutes was like a walk in the park to her. As the young woman seated herself, she saw the look in his eyes before the blank expression blocked it out, the same look Naruto got when a prank of his against her failed. _What are you playing at, Kazekage?_

"If the credentials the Hokage sent on you are to be believed, I have nothing to fear in placing you in charge of the hospital. So, you will report there and over-see the training of the medical nins there and reformat how things are run as they are needed." Gaara reached inside his robes, pulling out a packet and tossing it to the woman. "An advance on your payment. You will be payed weekly starting next week at a steady rate. You start today."

She got up to leave, nodding once to him while stowing away the packet of money. Already she was dreaming of what to spend it on. "And Sakura." She paused, looking back at him over one shoulder. "Don't disappoint me or my generosity."

Her teeth ground together the slightest bit. "Hai, Kazekage-sama." She swept back towards the door, yanking it open.

"I thougth I told you..." The door slammed shut with a resounding bang. "...to call me Gaara."

The young man laughed, softly and unheard. Perhaps this year would bring him something to look forward to, instead of the boring routine he'd grown accustomed to. It was refreshing, in a curious sort of way, to have someone around that blatantly went around disrespecting him and showed him no fear. The funny thing was, he didn't think she realized exactly how she was treating him. _I wonder if things are really so different in Konoha?_ He thought back to his trips to the Leaf Village, bringing up faces that were normally associated with her. _Well, she is friends with Naruto. And wasn't her sensei the one who read those porn novels in public? And everyone knows about the Hokage's drinking problem. Wait, isn't Konoha the village that houses that one womanizing shinobi that came here on a mission, only to seduce half my village's girls?!_ He rubbed his temples, wondering how dysfunctional all of Konoha was.

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Her fist left a sizeable crater in the yard in front of the Kazekage's tower. "What an insufferable...prick!" Sakura growled to herself, storming towards the hospital. "Generosity, I'd like to introduce him to the generosity of my fist. See how he likes missing a few of those pretty teeth of his."

She cracked her knuckles, a smile that could match Orochimaru's twisting her lips at the thought of a chakra-laden fist landing on the body of a certain sand-user. It was still there as she flung open the doors to the hospital, a dark chuckle announcing her arrival. Temari looked up from her spot at the front desk, shrinking back behind it at the sight of the vengeful med-nin. It had been some years since the blonde had seen her friend so worked up over something. She flinched when a hand came slamming down on top of the desk, slowly looking up into the infuriated face glaring down.

"S-Sakura! Umm...what's wrong?" She tried to smile at the other woman.

Sakura leaned down to eye level with Temari. "Your brother, is a bastard." She straightened again, giving an evil eye to the rather formidable pile of files stacked on the desk and an even eviller (Is that even a word? O.o) look at the nurses shuffling slowly around and talking in small groups. "I'm in hell."

Temari sighed in acknowledgement. "I try to keep them in line, but my medical knowledge is only very basic, so I can't really tell them what to do."

"Leave it to me." Sakura growled, grabbing the first stack of files and marching over to the first group of medics. The hushed as she drew near, giving her a disdainful look. Without any warning, she plopped the entire stack into the arms of one of them, making the girl drop her cup of water. "Get to work on those patients, tea-times over. If I don't see full reports filled out on them by tonight, consider yourselves fired."

"And just who the hell do you think you are?" A second one asked snottily.

Sakura paused as she was walking away to drop another stack of files on another group of talking med-nins, looking over her shoulder coldly. "I'm your new boss, appointed by the Kazekage himself."

A ripple of nervousness flooded the room, the name of Gaara's title bringing all attention to her. _Best to get this over with now._ "Lunch time is now between 11:30-12:30. Since its just past..." A quick glance to the clock. "...10:30, why am I seeing staff not working when there's a mountain of patients waiting and needing looking after. You have 20 seconds to grab a file and start treating before I start firing. I'll be making rounds to teach you incompetant mongrels what being a medic is really about."

A few wary medics grabbed a file, listening to her orders and hurrying to their patients as Sakura silently counted in her head. When she reached twenty at last, her finger pointed to a particularily mean-looking male nurse. "You, out. I never want to see you here again in that uniform until you're ready to take this job seriously. As of this moment, you're fired." His eyes widened in outrage, protestations unheard as a mass stampede of med-nins and nurses rushed to do as she had told them all.

"Wow." Temari murmured to herself. "Hell truly hath no fury like a woman scorned. Remind me to never make you angry."

Sakura grinned at her, feeling immensely better. "Wanna come with me to look in on some of these idiots? I don't have time to teach a class and run this place with how things are now, I'll just teach while they work. And if you come with me, you'll learn faster so you can help me out around here. It'd be a huge relief on me if you could do that."

The blonde woman nodded eagerly, buzzing for another person to take her spot at the front desk. She left her fan underneath the desk, it wouldn't do to scare the people to death that she was trying to save. "Sound and Stone have been bothering us lately, so we're swamped. Mostly with minor injuries, the people here actually do work really well when there's some serious damage coming in. We've had to move some of the least-injured to emergency rooms even."

"Mhm. So why are there still so many? Minor injuries are easily repaired with chakra and its not all that taxing." Sakura looked over to see a blush rising on Temari's face.

"A-about that. There hasn't been a decent med-nin for years now. Orochimaru kinda took care of that for us. So, only the most talented of the talented can manage to heal maybe two or three bones a day at most."

She could feel her eye twitching in anger and irritation. _Damn that snake, he ruined everything while he was alive wasn't he._ The pink-haired ninja held up one hand as they walked, pointing to a small brown freckle in the middle. "Try and send your chakra into this marking, and only this marking. I can test your control like this."

Stopping, the blonde bit her lip in concentration, forcing chakra into her hands and trying to focus it into so tiny an amount. When the chakra hit, it covered nearly her whole palm, before narrowing to a circle, maybe an inch in diameter. "I can't get it any smaller." Temari admitted in defeat.

Sakura clapped a hand on her friend's shoulder, smiling at her. "You did great, your control is good, just needs fine-tuning. I can teach you some basic healing jutsu's that are perfect for you with that kind of control after we spar later. And later I can show you how to make the chakra even smaller."

The made the rounds slowly, Sakura stopping more then a few times to heal an individual so that they could leave and free up a room. She even had Temari fully heal a kunai gash in one nin's upper arm, though it left the Sand woman exhausted. With practice would come her stamina to heal more and more with using minimal amounts of chakra. Still, at the end of the day it left Sakura feeling haggard and depressed with the lack of skill and knowledge this village had. Even basic splints were poorly done, causing the pink-haired kunoichi to re-break a couple bones and re-splint them so that they could heal properly. To their credit, the Sand nins did seem eager to learn and hung on her every word. That could be equally because she frightened them with her earlier ruthlessness.

"Sakura, its time to go home."

She looked up from healing a little boy's broken wrist, smiling at the amazed mother who kept voicing her thanks. "Hey Temari, I just remembered I need to do a check-up on your brother. Do you mind if we post-pone our sparring for another day? I have some scrolls you can study though. Also, if you could get me a decent uniform for tomorrow, I'd love you forever."

"Sounds great! And I will, no worries." Temari waited calmly until Sakura had procurred the scrolls from one of her pouches before saying goodnight and leaving for her own home. "Try not to let my bastard of a brother bother you too much." She called out giggling.

_Now what? Night staff is here and they seem to be a better batch then the day one. I'm sure his highness can't be bothered to come here for his appointment, so I guess that means I have to go to him. Insufferable male._ A few notes were jotted down for the night crew, who were quite honestly amazed at the amount of work that had been done, and left the building. The sun had long-since set and the streets were just starting to thin out from the late-night crowd. She twisted and slipped her way through the throng, eventually just taking to the rooftops in irritation to get to the tower faster.

This time, she allowed the secretary to lead her up to the door and ask if the Kazekage wanted to see her. A non-commital grunt had the door being pushed open by Leaf ninja. She had waited long enough and she closed the door on the stammering secretary. One of the windows had been shoved open and he was sitting in the frame of it, one knee bent with an arm wrapped around it, the other straightened out with his weight leaning on his left hand as he looked outside.

"I was starting to wonder if you'd come."

She snorted at his mocking tone, snapping her fingers and pointing at his desk. "Of course I would. I'd hate to _dissappoint_ you oh great and mighty Kazekage-sama. Now are we doing this here or somewhere else. If its here, clear the desk."

Jade eyes simply stared at her, moving to her still-pointing finger, to her own emerald eyes. He simply couldn't believe it, his mind refusing to wrap around the idea that this woman had just **ordered** him to do something. Slipping off the windowsill, he gave her a pointed look before scooping up the large amount of scattered papers into a pile and dropping them on the floor. The small desklamp was placed next to it and a sweep of his arm cleared the little things like pens and erasers from his desk leaving it bare. Sakura nodded, turning on her heel to go lock the door against any intruders. _If he wants to do it here, so be it._

"Strip and lay down."

"What?" Surely he had heard wrong. "You want me to do **what**?!"

One hand rose to massage her temple, sighing heavily. "Let me use simpler words for you. I want you to take off your clothes, climb up on the table, and lay down so that I may fully examine you. If you're that bashful, you can even leave your briefs on. Although I think they're riding up your ass. Otherwise you've got a stick rammed up there."

A muscle spasm at the corner of one eye was the only indication of his anger and how much he wanted to kill her at that moment. Still, he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeign her words get a rise out of him. "They're boxers, thank you."

Nimbly, his fingers worked through the buckles and fastenings until his shirt was dropped to the ground. He leaned one hip against his desk for balance, reaching down to tug off his sandals. Sakura watched him, scanning over his chest in vague interest. She had seen hundreds of men naked and semi-naked, and sure he looked good but it wasn't enough to make her drop to the ground drooling. Wrappings were added to the pile with the sandals and shirt and his fingers moved to his pants. When he sent a baleful look in her direction, she sighed and looked up at the ceiling. _Who knew Gaara would acquire a sense of modesty._

"I'm gonna see them anyway." She growled.

He laughed, a slithering sound coming faintly from his direction. "No you won't. At least not if you keep your eyes where they are until I put something on."

A very faint flush rose to her cheeks before cooling. "I thought you said you had boxers on, not commando."

"I said I had them, not that I was wearing them. And I don't have a stick in me either for your information." Finally his sand returned from where he had sent it to his quarters, slipping on the piece of cloth. "Will this take long?" He questioned, sitting on the desk.

"Depends if you cooperate. Can I look now without assaulting your sense of decency?"

"Hn."

She focused back onto him, a wide smile breaking over her face. "Aww, are those little turtles printed on there?" She giggled with delight as his face burned red.

"Temari does my shopping for me. Just hurry up and start." He crossed his arms moodily.

She jabbed him once in the chest. "I said lie down." And when he didn't move fast enough to her liking, she pressed him down with a hand to the shoulder, ignoring his death glare. There was only so much Gaara could take afterall, and she was definately pushing her limits with him.

His thoughts on how exactly he'd get back at, and potentially kill, the female before him halted as her fingertips gently brushed across his chest. His breath hitched as she traced the skar on his shoulder he had received from that damned Ichiha brat in the chuunin exams so long ago. Her other hand came into play, pressing flat to his abdomen while her other lay flat to the place above his heart, muscles involuntarily shivering where they were. A green glow engulfed her hands and a cooling sensation flooded him, both intimate and calming at the same time. Lazily, he linked his hands behind his head, earning her attention and a soft, "Don't move." from her. Her teeth caught her lower lip and she worried it, forehead creasing as she leisurely made her way through him.

_It definately looks like something was trying to dig its way out. But, the pattern of claw marks is odd, like this one here along the inside of his ribs. They start deep and drag outward, like it was forcefully...removed._ She gasped audibly, withdrawing her mind and chakra from him in the shock of her discovery. "Shukaku." She whispered.

Gaara tensed, hands clenching his wrists behind his head. "What about him? He's gone."

"Yes, I know. Akatsuki pulled him out, I was there remember. Except, when he was yanked out, he left some...damage behind." Again she pushed back into him, circulating his chakra streams at a fast pace. "Make that, a lot of damage. And I think its what's causing your episodes. A good portion of the damage was done to your brain. See, when he was pulled out, he sort of dug his claws literally into you, trying to resist. It looks like a swarm of tigers mauled your insides up."

_Well that explains why I hurt like a bitch most days._ Still, it was nagging at him, just how much had been done to him by the damned demon. As if it hadn't done more then enough to him over the years. "Can you fix it?"

She sighed, yawning and shoving her bangs out of her face. "Yeah, but its gonne take awhile. Months maybe even. The brain...its not an easy thing to heal. Before or after work, give me an hour every day to work on it." Gaara nodded, grimacing slightly at the mention of how long it may take. "If you're a good boy, I may even help you lose some of the pain you're carrying around without even knowing you're carrying it."

One eye widened, invisible eyebrow arched, as he waited for his explanation into that. "Oh?"

"A massage." Sakura clarified with a roll of her eyes. "Now lemme just finish this real quickly. Don't get happy on me though."

"Happy?"

She just grinned before suddenly moving her hands over him searchignly. He grunted in surprise as the woman felt his arms, flexing the joints, moving to his shoulders and down along his chest and sides. He squirmed when she hit one spot, not liking the scheming look that flashed over her face. Just great, he was ticklish in one spot and she had found it. And then her hands were at his waist and moving south, making his eyes bulge slightly and another grunt to escape his throat. She swept over his hips and along his thighs. He was silently thankful when she continued down to his calves, trying to control his breathing and the slow coil of...something in his stomach. _Dammit, what the hell is going on?_ Teeth sank into the inside of his cheek when she moved back up in the same manner as when she had trailed down his body.

"There, all done. Outwardly, you're fine, I just have to worry about the interior." She moved back, motioning to his clothes for him to get dressed. "So, around this time every day after work then?"

"Hn."

Sakura took that to mean his universal equivalent of 'yes'. "Alright. But your desk here isn't really the best thing for me to work with for you when you're longer then it is. Plus its cold, drafty, and not lighted well. So, where do we meet at then?"

The redhead paused in re-tying the strings of his pants. "You may meet me at my rooms."

The woman nodded, stretching her arms up over her head. "By your leave then?" He nodded, facing away while yanking his shirt back into place. "Till tomorrow. Goodnight, Gaara-kun."

He heard the door click shut behind her as he went back to sit in his windowsill. There would be no sleep for him tonight.

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A.N: Yeah yeah, rushed hospital scene I know. But I wasn't really interested in writing too much on it. Kinda boring in all honesty. Most hospital scenes will be skipped or rushed unless they're relevant. Anywho, thanks to all my reviewers and hope you keep up with this story. Trying to get the chapters longer and update steadily. Much love. -Lena

P.S: I also have a KakaSaku fic I'm currently writing for any who like that pairing. First chapter should be up in the next couple days.


	4. Chapter 4

Review Replies:

Thanks to everyone who replied, sorry its late and I'm half-asleep from writing the last four pages of this so I just want to thank everyone and I'll answer questions in reviews for the next chapter. Also, thanks for correcting me on Haruno. lol

Chapter 4

It was hopeless, really truly it was. Why was she even trying at all? _Patience is a virtue. Come on girl, its only your second day._ Her breath hissed out between her teeth at the sight of little cliques of talking workers littered around the lobby. _Count to ten, count to ten. Calm on Sakura, are you ANBU or not!_ Very slowly and carefully, she drew in a deep breath and let it out. Instead she pulled out some long, thin black metal tubes from one pouch and fastened them together. Then, swinging her arm swiftly, she smacked the blowgun-turned-rod viciously onto the front desk. The sharp _crack_ that filled the room had her gaining everyone's attention. It was gratifying to see their eyes widen in alarm and bodies bursting into action. _Note to self: Come earlier._

Sighing, she picked a randomly occupied room and slipped inside to observe the medic and how well they did. As the examination commenced, Sakura easily identified the problem of a common plant poison with a simple glance at the puncture in the man's left forearm. The wound was circled in an easily-recognized green-spotted rash. It was easily treated, the antidote being exceedingly easy to make.

"I-I'm so sorry sir! But I'm afraid I may need to remove the arm before this spreads even further." The Sand medic apologized profusely to the man who had gone pale.

"Nani?!" Sakura screeched, control snapping. "Just what do you think that is?" She demanded of the valiantly-struggling-not-to-faint medic.

The female medic swallowed audibly. "I-is it not th-the Creeping Death poison jutsu?"

Her hand smacked her own forehead as Sakura moved to stand beside the other female. She offered a smile to the man who was giving her a wary look. "While the diagnosis is correct for that particular little nasty, this is most certaintly NOT that. Creeping Death is signified usually with a pattern of three parrellel lines with one perpendicular to them. Also, the surrounding area would not be red with green spots, it would be black and necrotic. Necrotic as in the flesh would be visibly turning black as it died and decayed." The sand medic-nin's mouth made a small 'O' in understanding. "This, is caused by the thorns of many common cacti of the desert, easily treated."

"Oh! I know how to treat this then!"

To be certain she did, the Konoha kunoichi remained in the room until the correct antidote had been found and properly administered. Nodding in satisfaction, Sakura left the room with insructions to the medic to train her co-workers in recognizing the differences between the easily-cured cacti poison, and the still-uncureable deadly assassin jutsu. The morning progressed much in the same manner, with her having to correct something in every room she oversaw. If it wasn't the diagnosis, it was the cure. If not the cure, then the correct dosage and treatment method. It was tedious, disheartening, and frustrating.

_How are half these people still alive for goodness sake! If I hadn't stopped that one girl from givng that anemic girl a blood thinner, she'd have bled out from the next mosquito bite she got!_ But there was a small spark of good in it all that gave the young woman hope. Walking towards the cafeteria after Temari had bumped into her in the hallway and demanded she eat lunch with the sand nin, the pink-haired woman had walked past a pair of medics trading information the other had learned from her when she had listened into their examinations. _At least they're starting to take this seriously._

"So what happened last night with my brother?" Temari asked, abruptly changing the subject away from Suna's latest fashion trends.

Sakura choked on the water she had been sipping, spitting it out and coughing harshly. "W-What do you mean? Nothing but an ordinary check-up."

Indigo eyes gave her a curious look. "Hmm, all I know is I walked in on him this morning and it looked like he hadn't moved all night. There was a layer of dust on him, I swear!" The blonde's lips curled up into a lecherous grin. "Or maybe my little baby brother just isn't used to such a hot medic feeling him up."

Sakura snorted, savagely ripping into the chicken salad sandwich she had gotten. "I'm sorry Temi, but your brother is about as likely to get riled up over a woman feeling him up, as Sasuke is to learning he's secretly gay and in love with Naruto. More or less likely he's just pissed that I have to see him again for the next while every night. I swear, I think I may kill him before I finish healing him."

The mood sobered instantly as worry filled the blonde woman's face. "He needs healing?"

A wince. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you sooner Temi. But its good and bad news. I know how to stop those episodes your brother has been having, I kinda stumbled upon him during one of them. Its what led to last night's little escapade in medical protocol." A smile twitched at her lips as she remembered Gaara's reluctance to listen to her order to unclothe before fading away. "There was some massive damage done to his interiors when Shukaku was removed from his body." She quickly laid a hand over her friend's. "Don't worry though, I can fix him. Its just going to take me a lot of time. But I can do it. So long as he doesn't make me kill him myself first." She gave a small smile, hoping to lighten the mood. Though they'd never admit it, she knew the older of the three sand siblings worried about their youngest member and cared for him greatly.

"Thanks, Sakura. It means a lot." And then Temari was grinning with her. "And if the sexless wonder does ever figure it out that he's a male and decides to get frisky, you just let me know. I know all his weak points and ways to get back at him. Or I'll just beat him senseless with my fan."

The two giggled softly to each other at the mental image of the great Kazekage being beaten over the head with the massive fan. It was a gratifying image, for the Leaf-nin to think of him being brought down a peg or two off his high horse. They passed the rest of their lunch pleasantly, relating how things were progressing and changes that still needed to be made in the hospital. The main one being the completely inapropriate hospital uniforms. They were large, bulky robes that hindered movement. Without a second thought, the ANBU woman set up a whole new design of closer-fitting clothes that were cool and loose enough to be comfortable, but practical for purposes that required the wearer to run full-speed to an emergency. Temari had looked shocked at the designs, trying to explain that Suna was much more conservative then Konoha and what Sakura was proposing could be considered far to risque.

"Pfft, I was giving free reign by the Almighty Kazekage. They can take it up with him. Besides, the skirts only go two inches above the knee. Trust me, I know they may be shocking but they're much more comfortable for indoor use."

"I swear you'll be the death of many a young man before you leave us."

That one earned a deep chuckle from the pink-haired ninja. "One can only hope. Anywho, I've spent this whole morning correcting and teaching, time for me to get started on chakra control and how to use it. Oh, that reminds me." She arched her back, cracking the spine as she stood up. "If you want to fine-tune your chakra control, I know a way I used to help with mine. Take a pin at home, and make it stand on point on your finger. When you can do that, try and move it to stand on a spot in your palm. Slowly narrow that point smaller and smaller. When you can do that, try and make the needle prick and pattern in a piece of paper. I've gotten to the point I could do embroidery with the damn thing with no hands." She picked up their trays. "And if you're up to healing with your chakra again today, come find me. Constant practice and use in this field with your chakra with strengthen your stamina and also help fine-tune your control."

Temari nodded, rising as well and giggling. "You know, you really have earned the nickname most of the staff here has given you."

"Oh, what's that?"

"They're calling you the General around here."

She snorted. "Very original. Well, back to slave work, I'll see you around."

If the young woman thought her morning had been trying, her afternoon into early evening was down-right grueling. She did have to give credit to Suna for one thing, all their medics did have the potential of great chakra control. It was just undeveloped and unrefined at the current moment. Each medic that she was able to get around to testing for their chakra control, was given a task to do at least an hour every night to help improve that control. And three were at a level similar to Temari's and Sakura found herself able to teach and instruct them through healing a broken bone. Fortunately, and unfortunately for the poor victims of the ailment, Suna hosted many children who loved to dare each other into doing dangerous stunts. So there was a wealth of sprains, fractures, and broken bones to heal. Though the children's ward was noteably much more empty after Sakura swept through and healed as many as she could. Children were her one greatest weakness.

Likely, she could have finished off the entire ward if she had had all night and could use all her chakra there. Bones were nothing to her now but a blink of an eye and a whisper of chakra. But as it was, she could only use half of her chakra supply, the other half would be needed tonight. And something was telling the young woman that the night was going to be the most strenous thing she'd encountered in a long time. _I still need to write to Tsunade too. And I really should send a letter to Naruto and Ino at least, letting them know._

Leaving instructions with the head nurse of the night crew and leaving detailed notes on corrections she had been making for the day crew on diagnosis', treaments, and dosage measurements for the night crew, Sakura finally allowed herself to leave the place. Her stomach was setting up a humiliating rumble, forcing the woman to stop and pick up some take-out. As an after-thought, she picked up two servings in case Gaara was hungry. Even if he wasn't, she could save it for tomorrow night's dinner. _I still haven't gotten a chance to go shopping. I'm just lucky I washed this outfit last night. Maybe I'll skip training in the morning and go pick up some food and clothes instead. I think that's a little bit more important at the moment anyway._

Feeling better now that she had a plan to go by and mouth watering at the scent of the food in her hands, she picked up her pace and jogged the rest of the way to her destination. Again, she ignored the secretary as she flew by, the woman sighing and just ignoring the eccentric kunoichi. If the Kazekage hadn't done something about her lack of manners yet, that was his affair. Besides, the Leaf woman scared her on a deeper level, something about how her eyes could go cold and unreadable in a moment's notice. It was almost like she wasn't human then, almost like how their leader had been when he still harbored his demon.

Sakura pushed the doors open with her back, briefly smiling at how it reminded her of her ex-sensei Kakashi. Course, he did it since his hands were full of smut and not food. _First thing I'm doing when I get back is to make good on my threats and destroy those disgusting books._ Ignoring the incredulous look being directed at her, she made herself at home. Clearing a portion of his desk off of papers, she set out the food and plunked herself down into the seat she had taken yesterday morning with a groan of relief. How long had it been since she had last sat down? Lunch?!

"Make yourself comfortable." Gaara offered dryly. He contemplated pushing her stuff off his desk and throwing her on her ass outside the door to wait until he was ready.

"I got you some too if you're hungry." She mumbled around bulging cheeks, trying to shovel as much noodle goodness into her mouth and stomach in the shortest amount of time without choking.

His mouth clicked shut on whatever retort he had prepared for her. Jade eyes flicked to the desk and then back to her. No one ever went out of their way to do anything for him. No one but Kankurou and Temari at least. Fortunately for him, his companion was too busy eating and tensed to dodge to notice his mouth open and close a few times as words failed him. So, he settled for his infamous, all-around answer. "Hn."

Sakura rolled her eyes and watched as he took a tentative bite, shock spreading through his body at the fact that he liked it. Not that she could blame him, the food was like ecstacy and bliss in an edible form. She groaned in happiness as she finished her portion off, eyes closed and missing the look sent her way by the redhead at the noise. Her tongue lazily darted out to lick her lips, one hand rubbing her belly in comfort. Gaara stared at her, eyes following the movement of her pink tongue before beign drawn to her hand. _What...the hell...is going on?!_ He growled at himself as he shifted uncomfortably. _What is this feeling?_

"Oh damn, I feel good now." Sakura purred. "Well, shall I get started on you then?" She asked, looking at him through half-lidded eyes.

His mouth dropped open just slightly. _Is she...? No! I have an appointment with her! Ugh, damn this woman!_ He sent her an icy glare before giving a curt nod. "I shall meet you there." _I am NOT fleeing, merely going home quicker to clean up any mess._

Sakura sat there frozen at Gaara's abrupt departure. Shrugging and filing it away as another thing he did to irritate her, the woman cleaned up the small mess she had made of her meal before heading to the floor that housed their apartments. She was full and that alone made her too happy to get riled up over the man's insufferable actions. So she took her time walking down the steps, humming quietly to herself and swaying her hips in time. It had been some time since she had let herself go and be herself, laughing and getting angry freely. But there was no one in this village that could judge her on it. It was...liberating and she could feel that little girl that still lived deep inside reveling in the freedom of being able to express herself like before. Before when she believed that the good guys always won, that love conquered all.

He had left the door open, for her she assumed, and the still-humming woman sashayed inside with only a single knock to the door frame. She looked around the place, noting similarities between her place and his. Naturally, his was larger and more extravagant, but not all that different. The redhead came out of what she assumed was his bedroom, changed out of his Kazekage robes into a simple shirt and pair of pants. His calm look of indifference gave no hint to the fact that he had just sent his sand into a massive cleaning attack on all the dust in the place, barely finishing before she arrived. It wouldn't due for a foreigner to see the Kazekage living like a slob, he had reasoned.

"Would you mind...if we used your bed?" Sakura asked hesitantly. It was one thing to order a man up on a desk, it was another to invade his privacy. "Its best if you're about chest level to me and I can reach both sides." She explained.

He shrugged, going back into the room he had just vacated. He didn't sleep all that often, mostly a cat nap for an hour every other night. And then, it was usually in his window sill, not his bed. The room was quite barren, being one of his least-used rooms. There was a double bed, a dresser, and a nightstand with a lamp on it. If anything, this was just a place to store his clothes and nothing more. He leaned his hip against the side of the bed, watching as she walked in and gave the room a cursory look around.

It was completely unimpressive, reminding Sakura more of a hospital room then a bedroom with the lack of personalization. So she focused back on the man currently staring at her and waiting for her to say something. "Well go on, you know the drill. Or did you need me to look away again so you can play the blushing maiden act."

Gaara frowned at her, a small amount of sand moving to swirl around him. "Watch your tongue, woman." He growled.

She clucked her tongue to hide the coil of worry and the urge to draw a weapon. "You know Lord Kazekage-sama, I am the one who has properly discovered exactly what is wrong with you and have offered to fix it. Hard to do when you threaten me."

The hard edge to her voice had him scanning her body, taking stock of the weapons currently on her that he could spot. Surprisingly, there was more then a first and even third look could miss. Like the small kunai hidden behind the scrunchie she'd used to pull her hair into a high ponytail. Or that the third piercing in her right ear, the one made at the top of the ear in the cartiledge, wasn't housing an earring but a collapsable senbon. His interest was peaked, but she had a point. Was he the Kazekage or not? Such simple, childish remarks shouldn't be enough to rile him up, so he forced himself to calm down again. _More then anything she was just injuring the pride._ Raising an eyebrow as she instantly relaxed along with him gave that injured pride a boost. _So I CAN make her nervous._

Sakura watched him as he slipped the shirt off his shoulders, the lighting in his room much better then that of his office and allowing her roaming eyes to clearly see what had only been half-seen the other night. He was toned, his body type leaning towards the more slim and lithe build, but solid at the same time. The light cast shadows along the defined muscles, drawing her look to where the ridges of a six-pack could be seen. _Hmm, who'd have thought that Gaara would grow up to be attractive._ Definately no one would have thought so 12 years ago, back when he was still hated and reviled by 99 of the world. Of course, back then Sakura had been fanatical over Sasuke still. _I knew med-nins got the best perks._ She grinned wickedly, remembering just how many of Konoha's finest had been forced to strip for her on more then one occassion. Of course, the best were balanced by the fact she'd had to see the worst also.

She snapped back to her senses, dismissing her inner comparison of Genma against Kakashi, to look back at Gaara. She smiled, pointing at the bed. "Lay down again. Oh, the black is much better then the turtles by the way."

"Glad you approve. I picked them out so you'd have something nice to stare at." He smirked as she stumbled. The woman clearly had not been expecting him to play along and now he was glad he had.

_Well that...was unexpected._ She could almost feel the devilish kitty ears springing on top of her head though as the shock wore off. _So the sand boy wants to play hm? I haven't lived with friends like Genma and Naruto for no reason._ "Oh, I dunno. I think I've already got plenty to look at. Not to mention feel."

Jade eyes widened as she stepped up right in front of him, trailing a finger down from his right collarbone to just above his navel. He swallowed, covering the action by whipping around to go perch on the bed. No one, man or woman, had ever been so bold with him. For that matter, no person had ever taken the time to tease him like she was. It was...nice? "Come now Gaara-kun, you have to put up a bigger challenge then that to get the best of me. Now lay back, sooner I start the sooner I can make you feel better." She pressed her palm to his chest, just above his heart to push him back into a reclining position.

The change was instantaneous, as Sakura went from teasing and flirty, to practical. "Let me know if you feel any pain, there shouldn't be any. Also, before I start, it is extremely forbidden to enter the mind and brain of another. I'm going to need your permission before I can heal that damage, but you need to know I've never done anything in that area. I don't know what may happen to me fixing those particular wounds. It could be things will be just like with any other healing, or I could tap into your inner psych."

"Meaning?"

"I could see your memories, your thoughts. It could also, there's a very very slim chance, that I could also kill you."

He linked his hands behind his head, one leg bent up as he thought it over. "I'm not afraid to die. Most likely the village would thank you if that happened." He mused allowed, ignoring her shocked gasp. "If you do see into my...memories, you are not to repeat anything seen." He noticed then the shocked expression that he was giving her full permission in his own way. "I'm willing for another to see a few insignificant things that have happened in the past if it will take away the pain." He explained softly.

She bit her lip, hesitating before softly placing her hands back in the position they'd been last night, one just below the center of his ribcage, the other over his heart. "Careful, Gaara-kun. If you keep saying things like that, I may start to like you."

"The heavens forbid." Came the dry retort.

"Indeed, I don't think you could handle me." Sakura murmured, a faint green glow encompassing her hands.

Before he could comment back to her, she had sent her awareness and chakra diving into him looking for where to start at first. Gaara hissed as her hand moved across his skin, following the path of her chakra as it intermingled with his own inside his body. She frowned, pausing at one particularily dangerous scar that ran the length of his right lung. The cut had gone so deep at its worst, the medic was stunned the lung hadn't collapsed from the damage. Drawing her energies in to converge at this point, she began to go through the needed process of destruction and reconstruction. As it was, if she had known of such wounds at the time they had been inflicted and there in the months afterward, she'd have needed only two or three sessions of normal healing to fix Gaara up good-as-new. But now, years after the removal, the flesh was scarred and dead. It was thus required of her to burn away the useless, dead tissue first and then promote the growth of new healthy cells. In addition, it required her to be constantly healing while destroying so that the wound would have no time to re-start the scarring process.

It was a very precise, tedious, and draining technique that required the absolute finest control and an extensive knowledge of the human anatomy. "You may feel some pressure." She warned before starting. The woman didn't need to be crushed in sand because Gaara was startled. "Try to stay still."

There was a rumble from deep within his chest that she took as an affirmation to her request, waiting till he had exhaled before beginning the process of burning out the dead cells. He jerked once before stilling, watching as her teeth caught hold of her lower lip and worried it between them. _At this rate, she'll bite right through it._ The thought strangely disturbed him, making the man frown and turn his attention abruptly inward. There was an alternating sensation of burning heat and soothing coolness, both making his breathing marginally harder to get and labored.

Gaara let himself sink into a light meditative state, focussing on what she was doing. Sakura paused in her cycle of destroy, heal, destroy, heal to figure out what the sand nin was doing before returning back to her work. So long as he didn't interfere with her, he could observe all he wanted. _This is going to take longer than I expected. I'm rapidly getting exhausted. I'll be lucky to clean up even two of the more minor scratches after this one is finished. Of course, once those worhtless mutts at the hospital are trained up and working decently, I can conserve more of my energy for these meetings._

As it was, she had managed to move on to two more of the lesser wounds after healing what had been, in her view, the worst of the injuries sustained by the removal. It had also been quite likely impeding his breathing for years without the young man even realizing he was having troubles. "Alright big boy, I'm drained for the night." She said, pulling herself out of his body and drawing him to awareness with her. "Take a deep breath." A wide grin burst across her face as he did so and his eyes nearly bugged out at the difference.

"What did you do?"

She giggled happily, sinking wearily down to sit next to him on the bed. She traced a line down his right pec, a line that mirrored the scar she had healed. "You had a cut on one lung here that long. Rather nasty thing too it was."

He stared at the spot her finger was resting at on his chest, unable to believe he had carried something as bad as she had shown without even knowing it. Gaara looked back up at her, wanting to know just how bad things were inside, but bit his tongue as he saw her jerk her head up from where it had slowly sank down until her chin touched her chest. She was blinking rapidly, giving him a sheepish smile. _She wore herself out._ It was almost cute the way her eyes wandered to his pillow in longing. He looked at the clock, startled to see it was nearing midnight. She'd been at it for almost 4 hours! _No wonder she's so tired._

"Can you make it to your room?" He asked, moving to sit up and flinching as the action caused the limp hand still resting on him to fall onto his leg. Sakura was too tired to notice as he gently lifted her wrist and set her hand down on the bed, more interested in making calf eyes at the pillow that was so obviously begging her to sleep with it.

"Hmm?" She blinked, having not heard him. "Sorry, don't got no lollipops for you. I'll bring some tomorrow..." Her jaw cracked as she yawned, leaning heavily to the side on one hand. "I think I over-did myself, Gaara-kun."

Her eyes closed and she swayed dangerously as the young woman tried to stand up. He caught her as the action had her abruptly falling back down. It was the least he could do afterall for what she had done tonight. Sakura was quite honestly embarrassed with herself; she had thought she'd saved enough of her chakra but apparently she'd gone overboard and used too much. Now she barely had the energy to stand, much less walk. Even now it was taking almost everything she had left to fight off sleep. _Hmm, where'd the pillow come from?_ She thought to herself as her cheek connected with something warm. _Mmm, sleep is good thing. Yesh, sleep._

Gaara sighed as the woman fell asleep, leaning against his side and using his shoulder for a pillow. Shifting her around until he could get one arm under her knees and the other under her shoulders, he hoisted Sakura up bridal-style. _She's lighter then she looks._ Walking with her towards her rooms, he resolutely ignored how she snuggled into his warmth with a content murmur. He also ignored how soft her skin was against his hand, which was...currently...stroking her calf. He glared at the traitorous limb, picking up his pace. _I am NOT liking this. Obviously she's cast some strange jutsu and its making me do strange things. Like feeling her leg. Dammit!_

He sent his sand ahead to unlock her door, nearly jogging in his haste to set her down. It was nearly a relief when he did finally make it into her bedroom and set her down, until she shivered and rolled over in search of his heat. _Well I can't exactly leave her to freeze I suppose. Damn woman, making my life hell._ He gently shifted her over to one side of the bed before pulling back the covers on the other side. Lifting her up one more time, and keeping a firm eye on his rebellious hand, he tucked her in. Subconciously, he brushed a couple pink strands out of her face before turning to leave.

"Night...Gaara..."

The man looked over his shoulder to see a sliver of green peeking out from underneath her lashes. "Hn, night."

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AN: There, just a bit of fluffy goodness. Now, to determine does Sakura get those little butterfly feelings Gaara's suffering from? Lol, I had fun with this chapter. Although I did have two endings in mind for this one, I like this one better. The other had her latching onto him in her sleep. So yes, anywho its late and I'm completely exhausted and rambling. Tell me what you thought. Hope you liked it all. And I'll see you at the end of the next chapter. Ja ne! -Lena


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

There was an annoying beeping sound coming from the general vicinity of her left side. Unable or unwilling, likely the latter, to open her eyes, Sakura resorted to slamming her fist down onto the offending alarm clock. The satisfying _crunch_ of its outercasing caving in and gears crushing was the best wake-up call she's had in a long time. She rubbed her eyes, yawning and stretching. The woman winced as she felt the morning-after burn that flooded through her muscles that came in the morning after she had extended herself too much. _Nothing a hot shower can't fix though. And then shopping!_ Giggling gleefully, she kicked the covers off her legs and virtually leaped into the bathroom and into the shower.

_Ooo, I can just hear those new clothes calling to me. I'm coming babies!_ Scrubbing her figners through her hair and letting the hot stream of water soothe the residual pain in her body, she hummed to herself. _Maybe I can get Temari to come with me. Heavens knows that woman's been working hard enough to have earned a half-day off with me._ Running the soap down her arm, Sakura frowned as she encountered several small patches of sand. _Where did...OMG! He carried me didn't he?!_ Her face flushed crimson as memories from the previous night flooded her mind. _Well damn, I guess this means I need to detour to make an apology._

_It felt nice though to have a man caring for me again._

She shook her head at the thought, dismissing it brutally. _I am not that desperate to misread things, much less pant after the first thing male to help me. Just remember the last boyfriend I had and that'll knock these silly notions right out._ Her teeth bared in a snarl at the smallest thought of her last ex. _Much better._ She shut the water off, wrapping a towel around herself before exiting the bathroom to go pull on yesterday's otufit. _Ugh, I feel dirty again. Must get to market place as quickly as possible._

Twirling her hair up into a messy bun, she slipped the money she had been paid into a pocker on the inside of her shirt. _Oh joy, a meeting with Gaara first thing in the morning, just what I always wanted._ She rolled her eyes in sarcasm at her thoughts. _I swear, he's worse then Sasuke. At least with that man, its always the same thing over and over again. I don't know why Ino is still after him._ She used her back to push through her door, re-doing her hair into a neater bun that wouldn't fall apart every three steps.

"You're awake."

She shrieked, smoothly pulling out a shuriken and a kunai before the voice registered in her brain as to who it was. _I swear he's psychic some times._ She forced a bright smile on her lips as she re-sheathed her weapons. "Goodmorning, Gaara-kun. I didn't know you were into the habit of stalking young women and scarying them in the morning."

His mouth tightened briefly, before loosening into a smirk. "Only the one's who shower with their curtains open."

He hadn't looked, hadn't even been outside yet. And it had certaintly never crossed his mind to reduce himself to a peeping tom. And honestly, not even Gaara thought about spying on Sakura without a little bit of wariness of her insane strength. But the slack jaw and bugged-out eyes was entirely worth the statement as her jaw opened and closed with no words escaping her. And when she finally settled with just letting her mouth hang open a couple of inches, he couldn't resist the urge to place a finger underneath her chin and closing it.

"You didn't." She squeaked out, unconciously crossing her arms over her chest.

Gaara gave a non-committal shrug. "You look better today." He commented, voice going serious and monotone once more. He had only been there to make sure there had been no adverse effects from her careless spendage of her chakra the other night. He had seen Temari when she drained herself doing something and waking up the next morning nearly crying in residual pain.

Sakura flushed red at his mention of her source of current embarrassment. _Swallow pride. Swallow it dammit!_ "A-About that. I'm trully sorry for being so careless and for the trouble I put you through last night." Oh, pride did taste sour going down. "I will know better then to expend myself in such a way in the future." At least she wasn't obligated to bow.

He stared at her, just a little bit shocked that she was _apologizing_ to him after all she had done for him the other night. The least he could have done was carry her a couple yards to her bedroom. He couldn't remember, now that it was gone, when the last time he had breathed with no pain had been. The man cleared his throat uncomfortably. "The apology is unnecessary. I do things because I want to."

"Oh." She couldn't really think of anything else to say

He nodded once and turned away from her, slowly walking down the hallway towards the stairs that would likely take him to his office. He paused several steps away and looked back at her over one shoulder. "Tonight?" She nodded numbly. "And thank you."

"Gaara-kun!"

She slapped one hand over her mouth, the word slipping out before she could stop it. _Great, now what? I didn't exactly plan to say anything after that. Drop your hand, he's looking at you. Oh kami, say something already!_ The sea-green eye visible over his shoulder just watched her unblinkingly. "Want to go shopping?" Her face nearly burned with the force of the blush she was desperately fighting down. _Of all the things to say, you asked that?_

The silence that dragged on made her twitch uncomfortably. It was a relief when he finally turned fully around to face her, head cocked to the side just the slightest bit, as if weighing her words. "Alright."

Once more her jaw dropped. Although, the kunoichi was careful to recover quickly lest he pull another stunt with closing it for her. "Seriously?"

"Its better then paperwork."

Green eyes narrowed as her infamous temper flared up. Flipping her bangs out of her eyes, the woman stalked past him. "I'm not entertainment you know." He stayed where he was, not liking the sense of respect she was dragging from him when she insisted on treating him as if he wasn't god. "Well are you coming?"

_Its kind of nice actually. Someone who treats me as a real person._ He thought to himself, long strides quickly taking him to her side. "What shopping are we doing?"

"Clothes. I need more desperately. I wonder if I can get Temari to come with..." She frowned as her impromptu companion froxe in place. His eyes had gone wide with what looked like...fear? "What's wrong?"

"No."

"No?"

"One or the other, Temari or clothing. But never, EVER, both together." A fine shiver of fear flowed down his spine like icy water. Memories of the first, and last, clothes shopping expedition he had taken with his sister rising up from the depths of his mind to haunt him once more.

"Why not?" She asked, curious. Was Temari and clothes shopping together really that bad?

He frowned, comletely unwilling to mention the horrors he experienced that day. "I said no."

"Fine fine. Mr. Grouchy this morning I see. Sheath the claws already kitty."

His eye twitched, fingers clenching. "Kitty?"

Sakura smirked at him. "I'm sorry, would you prefer Kitten?" The grinding of teeth met her ears, making her laugh. "Careful now, Kazekage-sama. You're starting to fall behind again."

"I hate that title. Makes me feel old." He muttered, trying to change the subject.

She giggled again, a little surprised with how easily she could do that with what had to be the most infuriating male she'd ever met. "Well then its perfect, you are ancient after all. I mean, you're what, 30 now? 35?"

The look he gave her was pure murder. "I'm 25."

She winked at him as she laughed, trying to show she had just been playing around but he was too much into his I'm-big-bad-scary-so-fear-me mood. She left him alone as they continued out of the tower and towards the marketplace. Honestly, Sakura hadn't expected him to go through with accompanying her on her little 'mission'. She noted quickly however that a good majority of the fear the villagers of Suna had shown towards the man at her side had vanished into respect. They did get more then a few curious stares though. Apparently, it was unheard of for the Kazekage to be seen in public in anyone's company other then his siblings, or important political members.

"Temari has been keeping me informed on how things are going in the hospital." He commented while leaning against a wall as she debated between a black sleeveless shirt with green butterfly wings on the back and a hunter green shirt with mesh sleeves. "I like the black one."

"Mm, so do I." She replaced the green one. "So, do I meet with the esteemed Kazekage's approval?"

One side of his mouth tipped up in a smirk. "She said you stormed the place and took it over with force. But that you've also saved one of my best chuunins from having an arm sliced off and went on a personal mission to save the children while correcting false information. She's also told me you've doubled the effectiveness of our top 6 meds. So, I am very pleased." His fingers skimmed over a rack of skirts before pulling out a slim, black skirt. It would reach just above her knees it appeared and had sides with slits that would go to mid-thigh. "I like this one too."

She looked the skirt over critically, plucking it from his fingers to add to the pile she would try on to make sure it fit. "You have good taste Gaara-kun. Honestly, I'm surprised."

"Older sister." Was all he said in reply, now looking at another shirt. It was a bright blue with a spray of flowers adorning the left shoulder of it and made of a tight, stretchy material. It too was taken from his grasp by his female companion. _Mmm, tight shirt would look good on her._ He thought lazily.

"I'll be right back, Gaara-kun. I need to make sure these fit."

He watched in amusement as her hands seemed to haved minds of their own. In the few short feet it was to the changing rooms, she managed to pick up another skirt, two pairs of shorts, and one more shirt. Casually he strolled after her, leaning against the wall outside of the rooms and closing his eyes. The store was quiet this early in the morning, they were the only two in there besides the owner. "Are you alright? You sound like a dying camel." He said once as various grunts and hisses came from within.

A hand thrust out one of the pairs of shorts she had picked up. "Find that in the next size up oh Great and Mighty One. Its too tight on the hips."

"Why can't you get it?"

"Because I'm not dressed to at the moment. Now stop whining, its not sexy." She poked her head around the corner and winked at him. "Please." She added, dropping her voice to a husky murmur.

He sighed and rolled his eyes, moving to go find the requested article. _Damn woman._ His lips twisted to an evil smirk as he spotted something more...interesting. Quickly snatching the item, he strolled back at his lazy pace, handing it to her through the curtain that covered the stall she was in. "This should be your size."

There was a long, heavy pause before the curtain was ripped aside by the Leaf woman. Only she was wearing a huge smile and striking a pose. "How thoughtful of you! Do you like it?"

He had expected outrage, anger, fury, shock, embarrassment. Not this. Not her flauntingly showing off the black lace thong and bra set. Gaara was mortified as he felt his cheeks flare up in an impressive blush. He stumbled backwards into the wall, definately not used to seeing such a sight. "Indecent woman! Put something on, we don't parade around in public here in so little!" He growled the moment his voice came back. Never mind that his eyes were rapidly flicking over her form.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I see that stick is still up your ass." She closed the curtain though and went back to trying on the last of her clothes, placing the undergarments into her 'buying' pile.

When she exited the stall, Gaara had composed himself back into the emotionless doll, though the glare he sent her was just a tad more hostile in her eyes. She simply gave him the brightest smile she could and carried her selected items to the owner of the shop, briefly stopping to pick out several more sets of underwear. That brought just the smallest amount of color to Gaara's cheeks once more, making her green eyes sparkle in mischief. Sakura hadn't taken the time to look through or really count the money she'd been given, so her eyes went saucer-wide when she pulled out the envelope and opened it. _There's enough here to pay two month's rent on my apartment back home!_ Her stomach grumbled loudly, reminding her she hadn't eaten since dinner last night.

"I still have a couple hours before I'm expected in at the hospital. Care to join me for lunch?" She smiled sheepishly as her stomach growled again.

He shrugged, eyeing the several bags that were needed to hold all her purchases. Silently he held out one hand, palm up. She looked at him, uncomprehending before he sighed and took them from her. Understanding flared within her as his sand rose up. "Wait!" Quickly she dug through the bags, pulling out the black shirt he had originally chosen and a pair of shorts. Dashing into the changing rooms, she came back out and stuffed her dirty outfit into one of the bags.

Jade eyes scanned over her again as he ordered his sand to carry the things to her room in the tower. _So she likes her shorts tight to. Hmm, now why am I noticing that?_ "Thanks."

He shrugged, it hadn't been that big of a deal. And more or less likely if he hadn't, she would have pestered him to help her carry them anyway. And besides, he didn't need to be seen in the company of a female and have it so obviously stated that he'd gone into some flowery, girly store with her. Spinning on one heel, the man quickly left the place, wandering towards one of his personal, favorite places to eat at when he ate out. Honestly, he hadn't eaten since the night before also. Sakura didn't say a word, simply following him and trusting he wouldn't be leading her to her death for her little prank after helping her with her bags like that.

"Ah, Kazekage-sama! Usual spot yes?" The waitor asked as Gaara pushed through the door.

"No. Two this time."

"Two?" The other man curiously looked at the door where Sakura was walking in, looking around the small business with interest. A small smile graced his face at this little bit of gossip. "Two it is."

As the two slid into their seats at the small, two-person table by the window, she finally noticed something that had been bothering her. "You don't have your gourd. I just realized."

"Hn."

"Translation?"

Gaara sighed, rubbing his fingers into one temple. "There's no need for me to carry around so much weight when I am in my city and there has been no reports of pending attacks or such. Its back in my office."

She nodded, eyes glancing over what the place had to offer, eyebrows knitting together at the weird names and dishes. "Uh...what's this?"

Gaara turned his attention from the window to where she was pointing. "Desert lizard." He smirked at the wince she made and sighed as the woman pointed to another item. "Gazelle. An herbivore of the desert. You'll like it, its similar to beef."

Sakura nodded tentatively. "You're not lying are you?"

"I don't lie."

"So you did see me this morning?!"

He sighed. _Funny, I do that a lot around her._ "No, I didn't. But Kankarou informed me of your open curtain status."

He looked back out the window, ignoring Sakura as she choked and ranted about his perverted brother. It wasn't until his meal arrived that he finally moved again. If there was one thing he liked best about this place, it was that he didn't have to go through the hassle of ordering for himself. They knew what he liked and started it the moment he entered. That and the fact that the workers here had manners and neither male nor female employee ever tried to hit on or gawk at a customer.

"Its good!" Sakura said, shocked. She shot Gaara a dirty look at his quiet laughter. This place was definately tagged as a place to go to eat out at often.

They didn't say much through the meal, just the small comment here and there. The silence was peaceful and comfortable, something that the two found little in their days and cherished when they did. The only argument coming up over the paying of the bill. "Its customary for the guy to pay."

"But I want to pay!" Sakura shot back.

"I have more money."

"What is this, a date now?"

And with that, the man shut his mouth and looked away, feigning uninterest. "I shall see you tonight then." Gaara rose and dropped down the necessary coins, leaving before Sakura could blink. Although he did hear her rather colorful cursing of his name before the door swung firmly shut. He allowed his composure to crack enough for a chuckle to escape. _I can't wait for tonight oddly enough. She fascinates me._

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AN: Alright, sorry if it seems hurried of confusing, but I was having fun with this chapter. I will warn, there's a timeskip of about a month with the next chapter. Nothing important missed. Also, I was trying to encourage the two's interest in each other along a little bit, so what better way then shopping! Anywho, reviews and critiscm please. Also, a quick question to you all. I have this idea for another gaara/sakura story that has been poking my mind for about two weeks now. So the question it, should I start writing that one as well now? Keeping in mind I'm also writing and posting a kakashi/sakura story at the moment as well too. So I can either be writing three stories that are updated constantly but at longer intervals between chapters since I'll be working on three, or stick to the two and have shorter intervals between the updates and pray I don't lose the drive to write the third. Personally, I'm thinking about trying out working on three since when I get writer's block on one story, I can just move to a different one. Anywho, any input would be appreciated. Much love and thanks. -Lena


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"You're late."

She sighed, running a hand through her bangs to push them out of her eyes. Her fingers quickly undid her belt and dropped it to the floor before starting on the thigh holder for her kunai, eventually moving to her removal of most of the hidden weapons on her. It was all dropped into a messy pile by the door, an irritated look flashing across Gaara's face. He rose from his spot on the couch, eyes critically looking her over. He hadn't seen her this tired before their sessions, something serious must have happened at the hospital. Which was still strange though. In the month and a half that she'd been here, reports from Temari had informed him things were progressing at twice the rate they had expected underneath the fiery, pink-haired woman. It was running smoother then ever with more ninja going in to it that were coming out within a day, fully healed. Enough so that usually she was able to store up almost all her chakra for the night, using only a small portion to help out here and there.

"I know I am. Two ninja came in, apparently they'd been sparring and got carried away. Evisceration are not fun to heal. Do you know how hard it is to keep in over thirty feet of intestines while trying to knit flesh and bones together?" She grimaced, remembering how mutilated some of their internal organs had been. Muscle and bone was easy compared to healing organs.

Gaara frowned, the smallest downward turn of his lips. "I did not need to know that."

She gave a bark of laughter. "At least you didn't have to see it or feel it. So how are you feeling?" She walked to stand in front of him as he easily slid his shirt off.

Her fingers pressed into his skin in her customary sweep to make sure everything was in working order still, making him bend here, take a deep breath there. "Better." He grunted hoarsely.

With every day that had passed, his nights had become more and more like a strange sort of torture. Her touch both calmed him and made him want more. It was frustrating for the young man to say the least. He found himself reverting back to sleeplessness, the dark rings around his eyes had darkened once more. But insomnia was preferable to the dreams that had taken to haunting him in the nights. Dreams that inevitably contained the woman before him. He nearly sighed in relief and groaned in disappointment as her hands left him.

"Mm, you're doing great. No ill effects or anything of the sort. How are the headaches doing?" She lifted her hands to place them at his temples. They had decided to just touch upon healing his mind two days ago. She winced, remembering how the first session had sent him into one of his episodes and left him with a migraine that was painful enough to leave even Gaara bedridden for the day. The second night, he had insisted she continue. Being infinitely more careful, he'd only been left with a dull ache at the price of her healing barely anything.

"It disappeared this morning, hasn't come back since."

She frowned at the hoarseness of his voice and trailed her hands down to his neck, checking for any inflammation. The skin underneath her fingertips shivered briefly before he was still as stone again. She frowned, teeth nibbling on her lower lip to signal she was in deep thought, and capturing the attention of a pair of jade eyes. _If it was anyone but Gaara, and maybe Sasuke, I'd swear he was enjoying this. Like it was arousing. But this is Gaara! I don't think he even knows what the hell sex is for the matter! Unless he turned into some kind of secret sexual deviant without me or Naruto noticing. But Naruto even told me that he's never seen Gaara look at or talk about having an interest in any woman. Hmm, I wonder if he's gay._

The though caused the young woman to clamp down hard on her lip to stop the hysterical giggles bubbling up her throat. If she let herself laugh, it would undoubtedly provoke the redhead into asking what was so amusing to the woman. And Sakura doubted Gaara would find the thought of him gay as funny as she herself found it. Still, her curiosity got the better of her and she sent her chakra out to brush against his in a technique she used to gauge people's emotions at the current time. Shields instantly slammed themselves into place, his chakra surging up to try and keep her out of his channels, and he jerked underneath her fingers in startlement. She had never done something like that without the cooling sensation of healing, and she almost always informed him or gave him a clue that she would be sending her awareness and chakra into his body. Whether it was a calculated touch a the way her eyes became purely proffessional, but this had taken him off-guard.

"What was that?" He asked in a demanding voice. _Hey, my voice is normal again. Finally._

"I was making sure you didn't have a cold by reading your aura." It was really only a half-lie.

"Oh." His eyes narrowed and his brow creased. "Why? You know I am unable to get sick."

Another shivered went through his skin as the shot of adrenaline from when she had startled him slowly faded out of his system. Goosebumps rose on his arms as the pink-haired ninja slid warm palms down them. "You're freezing and shivering." Her statement was emphasized as another shiver ran through him. Though it wasn't from cold. "And no, we know you were immune to almost everything toxic or harmful to your body when you still had the Shukaku inside you. But now, I don't know if you still are."

"I am." It was said so softly, Sakura almost missed it.

Carefully, she let her chakra trail out of her body to brush against his again, going slowly enough that he would not be caught off-guard again and could repel her if he truly wanted. And when he didn't, she almost wished he had. Raw pain, sorrow, and anger was hidden beneath his cool exterior, fluctuating between the three as he recalled some memory or other that had triggered such a powerful reaction. She gasped, pulling back and looking at him with wide eyes. Then, before she could think about her actions and hesitate, Sakura threw her arms around his waist and pulled him in close for a hug. The young man went rigid, attempting to step back away from the likely insane woman.

"What happened?" Her voice was just as soft as his had been and he stopped his attempts to escape, instead moving the two of them over to the couch to sit down.

She released his waist when they got to the couch, but only so she could place one arm around his shoulders as he slumped forward, elbows on his knees. "There has been several assassination attempts on my life over the years. Many of the ones that occurred right after the demon was pulled out of me, were done with poisons, toxins, even some compounds that would instill in me a deadly disease." He turned his head so he was looking at her. "They all failed. The worst that happened was one that sent me into a coma for a day. It appears Shukaku benefitted me in one way at least."

There was something though that he was leaving out, she knew it. "Who sent the assassination attempts?"

Gaara sighed, running a hand through rust-red hair. "Every country except Leaf." He caught her eyes with his. "_Every_ country."

She understood what he meant, that even after he risked his life against the Akatsuki, against so many enemies over the years for his village, there were still attempts on his life, by his own people. Suna was still trying to get rid of their greatest weapon and Kazekage. Another check of his aura nearly had her crying at the amount of pain and sorrow such a betrayal caused in him. Using her strength against his resisting form, Sakura forced the young man to turn towards her so she could bring both arms around his shoulders. "Its okay to let go around me." She whispered, brushing one hand through his hair. "I won't betray you, ever."

He stopped trying to pull away and just let her hold him. _This feels...kinda nice actually._ "You know I'll kill you if you do."

The warm chuckle had him relaxing against her, finally letting his head rest on her shoulder as she continued the calming sensation of running her fingers through his hair. "I wouldn't have you any other way. Are you sure you won't killing me now for invading your personal space?" She teased lightly as his emotions stabalized out to a more mellow setting.

He took a minute to answer, pretending to think it over. "I think I can allow it this once." As much as he was loathed to leave the small sphere of comfort she'd given him, he still wasn't overly comfortable with interaction of this type with another. She allowed him to pull away this time, watching as he headed to his bedroom. "Shall we?"

Grinning impishly, Sakura moved to lean against the armrest of the couch, bringing one leg up to lay against the back of it while the other dangled over the side. "You know, I happened to notice this nice, big TV you've got in here." Emerald eye looked pointedly at the rarely-used appliance.

"Yes?"

She rolled her eyes and motioned him to come back over. "So let's watch a movie. It'll help distract your mind away from me messing around inside it and might help the pain. Come on now, don't be shy. I promise not to bite too hard." He gave a pointed look where her leg was stretched out and she rolled her eyes. "Just lean against me, back to chest. I need to be able to keep constant contact and we're both adults you know."

He shifted his weight awkwardly, not sure what he wanted to do. One part of him, the part of him that had survived a childhood that no child should have to go through, was shrieking that he needed to keep his distance and trust no one. The other side of him, the side of him that had slowly been developing over the years since his first fight with Naruto, urged him to give in and surround himself in the comfort she offered selflessly. It wasn't until she pouted and held her arms out invitingly that he finally decided, groaning at his decision. _I somehow sense I'm going to seriously regret this._ Hesitantly, he sat down at the edge of the couch, taking care not to touch her. Of course, that was his intentions, but the pink-haired woman did seem to have a mind of her own and it usually went against his. So back he was pulled, helpless against her inhumane strength and allowed Sakura to arrange them to her liking.

"See, is this really all that bad?" Sakura demanded when she finally got him leaning against her comfortably, the young man leaning back against her with her legs to either side of him. Before he could answer, she slid both hands through his hair and closed her eyes, letting herself fall back into him. "Go ahead and put on a movie, I can still listen to it. It'll help keep me calm too. Nothing horror though, jumping for me would be very bad for you right now."

"Hn." _I'm getting soft, catering to a woman. And one from another village no less._ Gaara grumbled to himself as he obligingly sent a tendril of sand over to the TV, turning it on to a random channel and ignoring it. It was more interesting to him to 'watch' as she worked personally, but they had found that when he tried to sink into himself to do just that like he used to do when she was simply healing his body, it caused him more pain and her more problems. "Leaf sent a message."

"Oh? What did Tsunade want? I swear, I sent my weekly report in on time this time. She can't be yelling at me for that again." Sakura mumbled, eyebrows drawing together in concentration as she delicately skated along a thin, but deep tear in his cerebral cortex. "Mind changing the channel. As much as you men seem to adore these type of late-night shows, I could do without hearing a woman moaning out two guys' names."

The redhead frowned, confused until he looked back over to the flickering images on the TV and blushed, hissing. "Kankarou!" Sakura giggled as he snapped the appliance off. "I should just give him the thing, I don't use it." The Kazekage snarled, still irritated his brother had had the gall to get _'those' _types of channels on _his_ possession.

"Konoha messenger?" She prompted gently.

"Your teammates are coming to visit."

She frowned in concern. "Why would Shuriken and Hawk be coming here? Gaara-kun, is there something you're not telling me?" Worry flooded her being and she pulled away from him slightly, leaning around to try and look him eye-to-eye.

"Shuriken? Hawk?" The man asked, puzzled. "Who are they?"

"My ANBU teammates. If you didn't...oh no..." _It can't be! They don't know I'm here, I don't think. And what if they see me in full gear! Dammit!_ "You're talking about the dobe and teme, aren't you?"

There was a long silence. "I've...never heard you call them that." Gaara mused out loud. "But yes, they should be here by tomorrow. Around noon-ish."

The air left her lungs in a rush, before she returned to her task. "Hey, Gaara-kun. Can you do me a favor?" The pink-haired woman took his silence as a yes. "Don't tell them what I came here as. I haven't told them yet that I became an ANBU."

"Why?"

He could sense her chewing on her lip. "Well, because neither of them are. Tsunade still won't let Sasuke past Chuunin level and Naruto refuses to advance until he can move up with him. I think they'd be offended that I didn't wait. That I surpassed them. Also, they worry about me too much, I don't want them worrying over me anymore."

"Stop doing that." He ordered.

"Huh?! Doing what?" _Damn, he changes moods faster then a pregnant hippo on steroids._

For an answer, he twisted at the waist and brought a hand up to her face, brushing a thumb softly over her lips. "You're starting to bleed from all the biting." Even with the demon gone, fresh blood could sometimes raise the bloodlust in him from his earlier days. _Old habits die hard._ Sakura flicked her tongue out, running it along her lip to clean up the blood from it. _New ones can be even harder though it seems._

"Sorry, I'll be more careful. Now face forward so I can finish. I've barely done anything." _Not that I can really do much anyway._

He knew the moment she started, the pressure in his head starting off as nothing more than an annoyance, building up to a dull throb. The sand-user knew the medic was being as careful as possible to spare him any pain and discomfort and he appreciated it. Enough that he refused to make any noise or give any indication that the pain was building up to an almost unbearable amount._ She'll only worry that it was her fault anyway. Perhaps that distraction thing was a good idea._ Gaara focused on listening only to the rhythmic sounds of Sakura's breathing and heartbeat, letting it lull him into a sense of calm and closed his eyes.

Two hours later, when the medic had finally done all she could for the night without causing her patient extensive pain in the morning and without burning herself out, she found the young man had fallen asleep. A soft smile graced her lips as she removed her hands from his hair to instead wrap them around him. She could have moved him, except she was already severely low on chakra and he slept light so she wanted him to get what sleep he could when he could. It was no secret that the few nights she had had to miss their late-night sessions together, all Gaara ended up doing was staying in his office and working until she came to him the next night. Of course, not waking him up or moving him meant she was destined to be pinned to the couch under him.

_Well, I suppose there's worse ways to die then to be crushed._ She shifted down further on the couch to get more comfortable, careful not to jostle the body lying on top of hers. _Nothing to do till he wakes, so I may as well sleep. Maybe he'll be kind enough to kill me while I'm still sleeping when he wakes up to find I invaded his personal space all night._

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Light pierced into his eyes painfully and he scrunched them shut, laboriously turning over and nuzzling further into the warmth wrapped around him. "Mmm...pillow..." It had been weeks since he had slept so well, and the young man wasn't ready to let it go just yet. It was curious though, he'd never known his pillow to move up and down and make a steady thumping noise.

Sakura yawned, raising a hand to wipe the sleep from her eyes and peering down at the moving body that had woken her. "G'morning, Gaara-kun."

It was comical to see the way his head snapped up to look at her, jade eyes wide in shock before he jerked away from her. His cheeks flushed bright red as he realized that the soft squishy thing he'd buried his face in this morning wasn't his pillow, but her breasts. _Please don't let her realize!_ There was little in the world Subaku no Gaara had to fear, but Sakura's enraged and chakra-laden fist connecting would have to be ranked as close to being fear-worthy. _If she'd been an enemy, she could have killed me easily._ The thought sent a chill down his spine, quickly followed by a warm feeling.

"What are you doing here?" He asked curiously.

He was still sitting on her legs, but she took advantage of his upright position to stretch her arms and back. "I didn't want to disturb you last night, hope you don't mind that I decided to spend the night." The kunoichi said, arching her back and groaning in satisfaction as her spine popped twice.

She straightened again with a lazy smile that vanished as she caught sight of something dark and completely alien to the young man. She had seen it, plenty of times, back in Konoha in the bars she frequented once or twice a week. Usually in the eyes of men bold enough to approach her, or in Genma's when he spotted a particular female that had caught his eye for the night. "Gaara..."

He shook his head, emotionless mask falling back into place. Quickly he stood up and moved away, running one hand through his unruly hair. "I need to take a shower. Take today off and come to my office at noon to meet the two bakas. If I must suffer with the loudmouth, you will too."

Luckily, Gaara's moods and attitudes let him pull off that excuse without exposing his true reason: running away. Everything that had been building up between them had crashed onto him all at once as he watched her this morning. He understood what it was, what lust meant. But he was above that, barely batting an eye at woman who subtly offered themselves almost to him in the prospects of gaining the prestige that went with his title and his wealth. He had never felt anything of such a primal nature before and now...it was definately one of the things that terrified him. He heard her dragging steps leaving, likely to take her to her own bed for some proper sleep; he had seen the exhaustion still apparent in her features. What disturbed him was the part of him that didn't want her to leave.

From what he knew, lust was a physical thing. It had only to do with one thing and one thing only. And that was where he got confused. Turning on the water to as hot as he could handle, Gaara stripped and stepped under the spray. He braced his hands against the cool tile of the wall, letting his head hang as he tried to muddle through everything the pink-haired ninja stirred in him. He looked forward to his nights with her, enjoyed her company. Another alien emotion spiked through him when he'd see her laughing and flirting with another man. She managed to make him smile where everyone else had failed since he was six. Not to mention he apparently trusted her enough to fall asleep in her presence. None of this which could be applied to lust. Not too mention he felt no desire to use her and throw her away. He groaned in frustration, grabbing a bar of soap and scrubbing his body down. _I think I'm in deep trouble._

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AN: Hola! Sorry took so long, school and work has kept me really busy. Plus I'm having a mid-life crisis I think. On the 20th of this month, I'm gonna hit my second decade. Ugh. . I feel so old. But anywho, nice little progression there in the story. Some reviews have influenced me to bring Naruto and Sasuke back in. lol. So see, writing me reviews is a good thing, I may use them. Anywho, I started a third story, finished the first chapter, decided I hated it and erased it. I'm now working on a rather lengthy one-shot of these two. Much angst. Kekekeke. Well, hope you all enjoyed this. And to any Lethal Empathy people who may read this, love the site guys! Especially all the hard evidence you've found that hints at a GaaSaku pairing in the story. Ciao lovelys. -Lena

PS: Let's hear it for the OOC-ness!_  
_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Sakura-chan!!!"

Her eyes went wide in horror and said woman quickly side-stepped behind her only salvation from the impending pounce of doom...Gaara. The Sand-nin's eyes widened at being used as a shield and seeing the blonde missle headed straight for him. Without thinking, he sent tendrils of sand out to immobolize the hyperactive Leaf shinobi. Blue eyes blinked open as his leap was halted mid-way through. A bright smile filled Naruto's face as he spotted Gaara and wiggled his fingers in a 'hello' gesture to him.

"Ano, can you let me down now, Gaara?" A flash of pink caught his attention as Sakura made a mad dash to dart behind the Uchiha for protection. "Ah-ha! Got ya!"

The moment his feet touched the ground, he was off and intercepting the young woman, wrapping his arms firmly around her. "Naruto! Air!" Sakura gasped out. The arms loosened, but refused to release her.

"Why did you tell us you were here? Even Kakashi-sensei is worried about you. Tsunade-baachan would only tell us you were on an A-rank mission for an unclassified amount of time." Her heart twisted sharply with guilt. "Teme over there was about ready to leave the village, again, just to go find you."

"Hn." Sasuke muttered, looking away before the brushing of red on his face could be seen.

_Keep twisting the knife in deeper, Naruto._ She thought to herself.

Gaara observed the trio, detached from the reunion and envious of the familiar closeness the three obviously shared with each other. A twinge of a darker emotion lanced through him as Sakura hugged both of her men in turn. It remained even when the fierce woman turned to deck Naruto for a lewd comment he made. _Jealousy._ He realized. _I'm jealous of their friendship. Of how comfortable she is with them._ His fingers itched and twitched slightly, wishing he had had someone, wishing he had someone even now whom he could so casually interact with and touch.

And then, as if she had heard him, the pink-haired woman turned her attention from tousling her boys' hair to the quiet, brooding man standing apart from them. A frown marred her features at the emotions he was unknowingly wearing out in the open on his face and body language. Sakura slipped away from the two, leaving Sasuke and Naruto to bicker between themselves and went over to the redhead. She slid one hand up to press a palm to his cheek, capturing and holding his attention. "What's wrong?" She asked quietly.

"Nothing." He muttered thickly. He masked the want and longing, the envy and jealousy even as his hand rose to cover hers, hungry for the touch and feel of another.

Understanding flickered through her mind at his reactions and she moved the hand on his face to grasp the one holding it there. Smiling, she dragged him over to the other two males, who had the look of beign ready to break out in a full-out brawl at any moment. They broke apart instantly though as the woman and kage approached, Sasuke raising an eyebrow at their joined hands. Black iris' met emerald ones and Sakura shook her head, accurately guessing the Uchiha's line of thought, though he still remained suspicious. Sakura scrunched her nose up at him before pushing Gaara into the middle of the trio.

"Well go on, give him a hug." She giggled and slid her arms around his waist from behind. "Its like hugging a panda-bear!"

The two from Konoha gaped at her before a wide smile split across Naruto's face. _Don't you dare._ Gaara glared at him, distracted from the pleasing feeling of Sakura hugging him. Years of dealing with Tsunade's and Sakura's much more murderous glares unfortunately left the Kyuubi container immune to the Kazekage's glare, which was much tamer then the two females', and Gaara found himself enveloped in black and orange from the front. A desperate look was sent in Sasuke's direction seeking help, only to be met with a highly amused smirk.

"Let me go." Gaara growled, standing stiff and rigid as the two more eccentric members of Team 7 refused to release him. His pride refused to allow him to struggle against them.

"Not till you hug back!" Naruto laughed.

It was an old game the younger members of Team 7 had created in their late teen years, to hug the most 'proper' and anti-touching people they knew amoungst their friends and not release them until the person had swallowed their pride and hugged back. Kakashi had held out for four days, forcing Naruto and Sakura to hug him in shifts so the other could eat and sleep. Although, the two agreed that the look on Neji's face when they had 'attacked' him was priceless. Of course, the murderous intent leaking off of Gaara was getting close to being their most dangerous endeavor it seemed.

"I refuse to hug a guy."

Sakura gasped, making him crane his neck around to see her as fake tears swam in her eyes. "Are you saying I'm that ugly that you're calling me a guy?! That I don't have enough flesh on my chest to even be considered an A-cup?!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and leaned against a wall. "Congratulations, she'll do this for the next five hours until you compliment her."

The redhead frowned. "I was referring to the orange baka. Its quite clear to me you are not a male as the evidence is quite clearly pressed against my back and you're too pretty to be thought of as a guy." He had no idea in hell what she had meant when she mentioned an A-cup. _I'll have to ask Temari about that._

"Did he just compliment her?" Sasuke asked quietly from his corner.

Naruto was staring at him, jaw gaping open. "I think he did."

The kage ignored them, much more amused with how Sakura's face was steadily becoming redder and redder. "Hn. I simply stated facts."

"S-so what are you two doing here?" Sakura blurted out, desperate to change the subject and pulling away from the redhead, even as Naruto whined that their perfect record was now marred with a defeat. Gaara caught himself from voicing any protest as the warmth left him.

"We're here to receive a report on the status of an ANBU that was sent here in exchange for a Suna ANBU that was sent to Konoha." Sasuke spoke up.

She tensed and so did Gaara, though the sand-nin's only indication was a harder-than-normal set to his mouth. A glance shot between the two rapidly. Sakura afraid he would reveal her secret, Gaara unsure what to do. "We need the report from her mouth directly." Sasuke added blithely.

Gaara coughed and gave a pointed look to Sakura. "Haruno, if you would go fetch her please?"

Her mouth formed an 'O' of understanding that she masked with a quick bow. "Hai, Kazekage-sama."

"Is it just me, or did they suddenly become really tense and formal with one another?" Naruto muttered out of the side of his mouth to Sasuke.

"Hn." The Sharingan-user replied with a brief nod.

Gaara rubbed the inner corners of his eyes with one hand. "At least one of you knows how to act proffessionally when the time calls for it."

"So which of our ANBU did you get, Gaara?" The blonde asked, flopping into the kage's chair.

A dirty look was sent in his direction, nearly burning the Kyuubi container with its intensity. "A kunoichi. One with a feline mask. Was a snarling one." The blood drained from Naruto's face and a quick glance over his shoulder revealed Sasuke looking similarily pale. The redhead smirked. "Fierce, bad-attitude, hot-tempered." _Smart, pretty, great with her hands._ His mind helped supply.

"Fuck." Sasuke whispered, eyes widening as a chakra filled with a deadly aura was sensed approaching. "Of all the ANBU, why her?"

And when the door burst open, revealing Sakura perfectly disguised in her ANBU uniform, Gaara honestly couldn't blame the two Konoha ninjas from backing away from her. The cold,deadly intent in her every movement combined with the massive amount of tightly controlled chakra rolling off her, had his respect for her going up a notch or two. Even more so as he realised that she had hidden this second, dangerous side of herself from him perfectly.

"What are you two doing here?" The ice in her voice could have frozen fire. A scroll was tossed to her by the dark-haired man. Emerald eyes scanned it, grateful her mask hid the large smile spreading across her face as she read Tsunade's letter.

_Sakura-_

_Three buildings, four training grounds, seven bridges, one road, and two barns have been destroyed this week alone. Its your turn to babysit these two brats. Have Kazekage bury them in sand for all I care, just keep them out of trouble. You can send them back in a week, when all the repairs are finished._

_-Tsunade_

_P.S: If you can, get Jiraiya out of here too!!_

The woman carefully rolled the scroll up and placed it into one of her pockets. "You're to remain here as my subordinates for the next week. I will give my report at the end of that time as you are about to leave. Is that understood?"

The way their faces scrunched up at the orders was comical. Still, the two bowed, having been on the recieving end of her anger more then once. And when Sakura dressed ANBU, she didn't pull her punches. She nodded and turned sharply to Gaara. "By your leave, Kazekage-sama."

The sand-user nodded, certain a pink-haired kunoichi would be re-joining them shortly after this 'other' woman left. "When Sa-Haruno returns, she can show you where you'll be staying. Don't destroy my village while you're here, and do not ransack all my ramen stands again."

The blonde man grinned and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Ne, Gaara. Wanna spar later, I think I found a way to counter your damned Rain of Sand and I wanna try it out."

Jade eyes watched as Sakura reappeared, entering the room stealthily. "Hm. I'm busy at night. Tomorrow morning."

Naruto's eyes narrowed suspiciously once more, Gaara had never post-poned a sparring session with him. It was his suspicions that the sand ninja looked forward to their sparring as much as he did. And in all they years he had none him, the redhead was never, ever too busy at night to brush him off. Blue eyes went wide and lit with understanding. "You have a girl!!" A pointing finger accompanied the accusation.

Another sigh escaped Sasuke and he only hoped when the Kazekage decapitated his teammate and friend, that he could avoid the blood spatters. Instead though, he was startled to see the tempermental man smirk and his eyes trail over to a spot to the left of the Uchiha. "You could say that."

The dark-haired man whipped around, literally taking half a step back at seeing the object of Gaara's attention. Who was currently flushed a bright crimson as the redhead's implications. "You two...are together?" Sasuke asked cautiously.

"What?!"

"Hn."

"What the hell are you talking about teme?!"

From the reactions alone, Sasuke knew they weren't together. But he had devoloped a fondness for teasing his female teammate, a by-product of hanging out with Naruto so much likely. "Notice neither one had denied it."

The flush vanished from Sakura's face, leaving behind only untainted anger. "Sasuke!!! We are NOT together!" Her hands balled into fists and she stomped her foot childishly for emphasis.

"I dunno, you're awfully red, Sakura-chan." Naruto piped up, holding up his hands in defense as her murderous gaze was directed at him.

She squealed and jumped though as an arm curled sinously around her shoulders, pulling her tight against someone's side. "Well, looks like we don't have to hide it anymore. They figured it out themselves." Gaara murmured, blank-faced as the two Konoha men's eyes bugged out and jaws opened. "I take it the Hokage was simply sending you two to confirm our engagement, correct?" Jade eyes blinked as the two fainted dead away and Sakura lunched a fist at him, sand barely blocking it in time.

"Now look what you've done!" Sakura wailed. "They're going to get us back majorly once they realise you were lying."

"Hn. Drag them to their rooms then return here." He held a hand to one temple as her body vibrated with rising anger. "There's some pain." He explained, instantly dispelling her rage.

"Oh, sure." Grabbing the backs of their collars, the pink-haired woman dragged her two teammates out of the office, waiting until the darkness of the hallway hid her from his sights to let the blush come back full force to her face. _It felt good, being held by him._ She mused to herself.

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AN: Really short and rathe rpointless I know, but I love my comedy romances. Anywho, the next one will be longer and a lot more plot-developing. I have big plans for it. Anywho, really I just wanted to finish this chapter up for myself today. Its my birthday present to me! To show even old gals like me who have hit their second decade can still write. Lol, anywho, please read and review and leave me cookies and cakes. Love you all and ja ne! -Lena


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Fabric really did have an interesting texture. Some could be so fine and sleek that it begged to be touched over and over again, like satin. Others were soft and smooth like cotton. Sakura rubbed at the material of her vest, noting the rough texture of its material. A dull throbbing had taken up residence in her skull, curtesy of the two morons she was currently walking between. Walking between to prevent them from going at each other's throats. _Gaara, I will get you for this._ She vowed, remembering how he had 'asked' her to keep an eye on them once the two had woken up. Asked, as in ordered her. _See if I ever cure his headaches ever again. Tempted to rip him up all over again tonight!_

"Where'd Sakura-chan go?" Came the inevitable question.

Sasuke nodded in agreement to his question, looking up at the woman between them from the corners of his eyes. "Its not like her to not be there."

"Haruno-san is very busy helping Suna's medical teams as the hospital." Sakura finally barked, resisting the urge to push her mask up and rub her eyes. The pounding in her skull was only getting worse as she spent more time with them.

Not to be mistaken, Sakura loved her boys dearly. But after going on so many A and S-ranked missions that kept her away from home for up to 4 months at a time for the last couple of years, she had come to appreciate the silence. And now that she had been living with Gaara, who also understood that appreciation for silence, it was difficult to re-adjust to them. It almost made one prefer the former-psycho over these two. _Wait, hold it right there. Did I just think that I liked Gaara's company over Naruto and Sasuke-kun's? Well, true he's not loud and obnoxious. And his hairstyle doesn't look like a cockatoo's or a pineapple. And I suppose its nice to watch a sunset and a sunrise with him. Naruto would ruin it by complaining about being hungry and Sasuke-kun wouldn't even go, thinking it worthless. His eyes are gorgeous and his body...damn its getting hotter out here I think. Wait, wait. Backtrack._

Sakura froze, going over her last thoughts carefully. She ignored the curious looks coming from her two male companions as they halted a few feet in front of her. _Okay, I'm alright. Just think of bad things about him. Like his arrogance. Although, its more like confidence in his being Kazekage._ She shook her head once. _ No! Don't rationalize faults into good qualities. Let's see, the rings around his eyes! Are sexy. Ummm...I know! He's always so cold and rude. But that can just be chalked up to most of his life. And he isn't really that cold to me._

She gasped behind her mask, drawing an unreadable look from Sasuke. Her hand flew to the front of her mask, to the spot that covered her mouth and she squeezed her eyes shut briefly. _No, this can't be happening. I mean, its Gaara for heaven's sake!_ Her body could still feel where he had held her, hours ago. Just the thought of it brought a tingle to the skin and a smile to her lips. Horror filled her eyes at her body and mind's reactions. _I...I think...I LIKE him._

"Leopard-san? Oi, let's go visit Sakura-chan! Stop spacing out." Naruto butted into her train of thought.

Dazed out as she was, she almost agreed. Until remembering it was still impossible for her to appear in two places at once. And Sasuke and Naruto would be able to detect if it was a shadow copy or the real her in an instant. The three just knew each other too well. "Haruno-san is busy, we will NOT be disturbing her." She snapped, "Look, a ramen stand. Why don't you go eat yourself sick?" She reached into one of her kunai pouches, which happened to make really great holders for money, and pulled out a handful of coins. "Here, knock yourselves out."

Naruto stared at the money the woman had shoved into his hands before crowing in delight, snagging Sasuke's collar and dragging him to the stand. "I bet I can eat twice as many bowls as you, teme!"

"Hn." For once, the dark-haired man ignored his best friend and looked back at their caretaker, who appeared to have spaced out while walking away. _Why did she want to get rid of us so fast?_

She turned her back to the two, confident that they had enough money to remain there until night. Her hands rose to rub her temples, and she moved subconciously towards the outskirts of the village, where Suna's genin trained. At this time of the day, many of the training grounds were generally empty with only the occassional team taking one. Even for Suna-born genin, the mid-day sun could cause serious dehydration and exhaustion if they trained too extensively or too hard beneath it. And she was correct, the place was almost completely deserted. Except for a redhead who appeared to have been expecting her.

"Don't you have paperwork?" She asked dryly, still irritated at being made into a babysitter for her two dense friends.

He shrugged one shoulder indifferentially. "I am doing it. It doesn't take that much chakra for a clone to sign meaningless papers concerning the debates of villagers and worthless memos." He frowned, looking her over before sending a small tendril of sand towards her.

She made no movement as it lifted her mask up and away from her face, though a cruel twist of a smile formed when he flinched at the wrath in her eyes. She stalked over to him, watching his eyes widen at her determined approach. The two had sparred more then a couple times, and at every match she made sure she got at least one well-placed kick or punch in. But they both knew she had never hit him at full-strength, since that would likely rip through his body. But now...neither was certain if the kunoichi would be holding back anything.

"Oh Gaara-chaaaaan. I must thank you for saddling me with those two. Properly." She cocked her arm back, hand balling into a fist and filling with chakra.

Ripples flowed out along the sand barrier the man had hastily constructed before her fist broke through, forcing him to dive into a roll to avoid it. _Che, she's stronger then that Uchiha._ Gaara thought to himself, wondering if she had held anything back in that hit. The dangerous smirk she was giving him didn't set him at ease, even if on the outside he was matching her smirk and crossing his arms in a relaxed pose. Jade eyes tracked her as she formed a fist again, muscles tensed to dodge, when she instead hit the earth.

The resulting quake knocked him to one knee and then flying into the air on his sand as deep gouges and cracks spread out from where her fist was planted in the ground. "Hn." He commented. "You never showed me that." His hand extended out to her, summoning tendrils of sand to wind their way up her arms and legs, firmly holding her.

Or, so he had thought. "I had to keep a few tricks to myself." She explained. Blue chakra slit through her bindings, cutting them enough so she could deal another of her devasting hits and escape. The two faced each other, Gaara from the air and Sakura on the ground. And then with a sigh, she flopped down to the ground, legs crossed and elbows resting on her knees. She shrugged as he stared at her, a shifting in his stance to the right showing the woman he was curious. _I wonder if its a bad thing that I'm starting to be able to read him._ "I'm not up for a spar right now." _I just wanted to wipe that smirk off your face._ She thought evilly to herself, biting the inside of her cheek to stop the smile from forming.

"Hn." The man grumbled, allowing himself to sink back to the ground. "Didn't seem like it."

She yawned and waved a hand in a yeah-whatever gesture, linking her hands behind her head and flopping backwards to lay down. Her eyes closed and she sighed in bliss at the wonderful silence, filled only with the sound of the wind. Sure the sun was a bit too bright but in comparison to the hell she had had to deal with early, it was a small trifle. Feet scuffed through the sand towards her and a shadow fell across her eyes. The woman slitted one open, surprised to find the redhead not looming over her, but sitting next to her. Absently she reached one hand over to play with the hem of his coat.

"Remind me again why you can't just imprison them in sand for the next week?"

A small vibration shook the man's body and a whisper of sound told her he was laughing. "I don't believe the Hokage was serious when she said that and I'd rather not strain relations with Suna's allied village."

Sakura sighed in mock-dissappointment. "Fine, but I'm giving them over to Temari as soon as I can trick her into taking them off my hands."

He winced, jade eyes travelling down to where her fingers were toying with his jacket. "That would only get us both killed." He mumbled distractedly.

His eyes tracked her hand's movements as it left his clothing and moved up towards his face. "Is the headache still gone?" He nodded simply, eyelids shutting slightly when cool fingers skimmed across his temples and brushed lightly at his hair. "Good. Hopefully it will stay that way since with those two in town, I'll likely not have much time to work on you."

"Why?"

The question came out abruptly and the woman could almost detect a tinge of...panic? His face was carefully set to be impassive, eyes guarded as she stared at him. "Because I'm sure those two will have me running around after their hides every five minutes."

"Kankuro will watch them. You will stay with me."

Sakura's lips twisted into an amused look, strangely pleased by how he wanted her with him. "Is that an order from the highly esteemed and all-powerful Kazekage?"

"Yes."

The woman sighed dramatically and removed her hand from where it had continued to play with his hair and pressed the back of it to her forehead. "Well I suppose there's no contesting that then, since I am nothing but a mere woman."

"No, you're more then that." Gaara mumbled, glancing at her brielfy before turning his attention to the desert.

Sakura stared at him and opened her mouth to question him about his last statement when a deep rumbling interrupted her, drawing the redhead's amused gaze to her belly. Which gave another rumbling complaint of being hungry. She placed one hand over it, face flushing pink in embarresment at her rebellious belly. "Sorry, I didn't really have time to eat today with those two bakas."

He gave her an exasperated look before standing up and walking away. "Come along woman. Hmph, a medic who can't even look after herself. What's worse is I'm putting my life in her hands."

"What did you say?!"

He chuckled softly and started to run away from the murderous woman chasing after him with a fist heavily laden with killing chakra.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Am I forgiven now?"

Sakura paused in wolfing down the bowl of udon, tapping the tips of her chopsticks to her lips. "Hmm, perhaps if dessert is included in this, I can find it in my heart to forgive you and your terribleness towards me."

Gaara covered the small smile that formed at her statement by pretending to check his money supply. "I think I can arrange that, if that means I'll be getting my medic back."

She mumbled something that would have been exetremely unladylike if the mouthful of food hadn't warped it. She swallowed and gave an audible sigh of contentment. "Alright Gaara, I can forgive you enough to actually heal you tonight."

Jade eyes rolled. "Gee thanks. My medic is actually doing what I'm paying her to do and what she was ordered to do."

"Watch it or I'll go on strike again."

"I'll invite the wonder duo to stay for another month."

She gasped chopsticks clattering to the table. "You wouldn't!"

He smirked and leaned back in his chair. "I would."

Fire flashed in her emerald eyes, though she knew it was true. But her belly was full and the kunoichi was beginning to feel comfortably lazy now. Her hands linked behind her head as she sighed and let her eyelids slide half-way shut. "Yare, yare. You win." She frowned as something wiggled in her mind at the edge of her understanding.

"Now what's wrong?" Her companion asked.

Sakura shook her head, frowning in concentration. "It feels like I forgot someth...oh hell. What time is it?"

Gaara cast a lazy look out the window they were seated at. "About an hour from dusk I'd say. Why? What have you messed up now?"

She didn't even stop long enough to cast him a dirty look as she bolted out the door, the Kazekage calmly following her out after dropping a few coins on the table. With a sweep of his hand he was riding through the air on a layer of sand, arms crossed. His eyes scanned the streets until they finally spotted the dot of pink weaving rapidly through crowds and roofs of his city. His eyes narrowed, wondering what had gotten the tempermental woman so fired up this time. The Kaze stopped as the woman he was watching halted suddenly, head slowly rotating to look to her left. The look of horror and shame had the man following her line of sight. And nearly screaming in rage and frustration.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!"

A sea of orange and black-clad bodies swarmed through the alleyways and streets of the far western side of his city. Smoke flew up everywhere, presumably from Sasuke destroying clone after clone of the Kyuubi container. _For their sake, it had better not be smoke from a destroyed building._ Gaara thought murderously, ordering his sand to carry him to that location.

But for all the Kazekage's wrath, it paled in comparison to the maelstrom that hit them before Gaara had even had a chance to fully arrive and drop from the sky. A whirlwind of flashing blades and pink hair engulfed the area, striking shadow clones out of her path as Sakura cut a path to where the two other members of Team 7 lay grappling on the ground. Jade eyes widened as he landed on a nearby roof as he watched her lash out with both hands, sinking them deep into the boys' hair and ripping them apart.

"Owowowowowowowow! OW!!" Naruto whined, clawing at the hand painfully yanking on his blonde hair. On the other side of the woman, Sasuke scrambled to get a foothold to relieve the pressure, muttering similar sentiments as Naruto under his breath.

"Give me ONE good reason as to why I shouldn't kick your asses all the way from Suna to Konoha, and drop you off at Tsunade-sensei's feet for a proper punishment you absolute morons!" Sakura seethed, giving them each a shake for good measure before releasing the two.

"It wasn't MY fault Leopard-san! That baka started everything!" Naruto yelled, eyes squinched shut as he rubbed his head and waved a pointed finger in the general direction he believed Sasuke to be.

"I don't care WHO'S fault it is, you are both representatives of the Konoha village and you are BOTH disgracing the name, honor, and prestige of that village by behaving like a pair of greenhorn genin on their first mission!" Her chest heaved as the rage inside the woman's body threatened to make her abuse her two best friends some more.

_Wow. I don't know if I should be scared of her now, or incredibly turned on._ Gaara thought to himself, watching the medic-nin shaking with anger and fire in her eyes.

"Sakura." Sasuke spoke from his place on the ground, safely out of her reach. He didn't dignify himself with rubbing at the ache in his skull where more then a few strands of hair had been ripped out by the woman's grip. And the pure malice in those emerald eyes nearly made the Uchiha protege himself want to not say anymore. But now, he had his answer to everything that had been bothering him the last several months. He KNEW that anger, and he knew it not from Sakura. "Why did you respond to Leopard-san?"

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AN - Yeah yeah, I know. I've been gone for ages. New job, new boy, possibly new home in a few months. Baby bird is finally leaving her nest. Anywho, I have been trying to write on this, a paragraph or two a day. So, I can't guarantee anything, but I may keep updating. I really wanna finish this one. I should have only maybe...5 or 6 more chapters I think. Not sure, we'll see. Anywho, again I am sorry and my thanks to everyone who has kept up with this even after all this time. For those who are also reading Dog Days, that one is about half-way complete to its next update and should hopefully be up by the end of the week. Don't hold me to it though. Sorry, no review answers this time around, next time though. Love y'all much. Take care!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

She blinked, jaw dropped open. She tried to form words to backtrack, explain, or rationalise the situation, but nothing came to her. Naruto was giving her a wide-eyed stare, one that was filled with shock, confusion, and a small amount of hurt. "Uh...I...umm..." Sakura was panicking and she knew it. But even with the knowledge, she couldn't stop her heart from racing, her breath coming in great, heaving gasps.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked plaintively, still taking in the image that it was indeed Sakura who had a death-grip on his hair.

She snatched her hand back from Naruto, still sucking in deep breathes of air. "I...I think...I'm fainting..."

She felt someone catch her as darkness overtook her vision, but she couldn't make out who it was. _Well, at least I can avoid answering for a bit longer._ And then she went limp and let the darkness take her away. Afterall, it was so much better than facing the situation she had feared since she became ANBU. _Damn you Sasuke. You and your intelligence._

"You can't be serious, Sasuke!" Naruto practically shrieked, eyes going from the broody young man, back to the pink-haired woman currently being held by the Kazekage. "This is Sakura we're talking about!"

The Uchiha sighed and rubbed his temples briefly. "Dobe. Think about it, what female other than the Hokage has the strength to flatten a village with one hit?"

Naruto blinked, deflating visibly. "Sakura-chan."

"And who knows us well enough to find us no matter what? Who, besides Kakashi, can sneak up on us both when we're both on alert?" Sasuke pressed, bringing up instances where the infamous Leopard-san had tracked them down and, quite often, delivered the Hokage's 'wrath' for being late.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto muttered.

Sasuke sighed again. "It really was quite obvious. I should have figured it out sooner. It would also explain all her frequent absences from the village and all the times she was with Ino, yes we couldn't get a hold of her."

Gaara frowned, shifting the young woman in his arms and turning to leave. "Where are you going?" Naruto asked rudely, his protectiveness rising at seeing one of his best friends, and second favorite kunoichi, being taken away.

"It is hot out and she's been stressed out enough I think. I'm taking her to her room." The redhead monotoned, never slowing his step.

Naruto blinked, mouth forming an "O" in understanding. "Well...you'll tell us when she wakes up right?"

"Mm."

The two Konoha ninjas watched the redhead until he disappeared around a building. Naruto let out his breath in a rush, flopping down to the ground. Sasuke kept his eyes on the spot where he'd last seen the two disappear. "You think it wise to leave them alone?" He muttered, a soft growl underlying the question.

"Yeah, Gaara won't hurt her. Remember, she's been here for awhile now. If he had wanted to, he would have done something a lot sooner." Naruto mumbled, tracing lines in the dust and sand littering the ground. "I just...I can't believe she didn't tell us!"

The Uchiha finally dragged his stare away from the spot and looked down at his best friend. "You know how she is. Sakura probably figured it would hurt us that she became ANBU before us, that she didn't wait. She always thinks of others first." Sand crunched underneath sandaled feet as the Uchiha genius started walking towards the Kazekage's tower. "Come on, dobe. I don't like the idea of leaving her alone with him."

With a grunt, the blonde sprang to his feet and caught up to his companion, mind still in turmoil over the events of the day.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was cool. And dark. Those were the first two things she registered as her mind slowly rose towards conciousness. Eyes still closed, Sakura snuggled down into what felt like a plush, feather-filled bed. She gasped though when a cool, wet cloth was placed on her forehead. Emerald eyes shot open, staring straight into brilliant jade ones. Gaara raised a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture, motioning with his head for her to look to her right where Naruto and Sasuke were dozing against the wall. Her eyes widened minutely and she nodded in understanding. _Heh heh. Those two, I should have known they would demand to be in the room if Gaara was going to be in it. They're so cute when they're being over-protective. Annoying sometimes though._

"What time is it?" She whispered to Gaara, as he replaced the cloth on her head with another cool one.

His eyes slid to her left where a small clock sat. "Six. At night."

"Mmm...six o'clock special...ramen..." Naruto grumbled, tongue flicking out to lick his lips as he dreamed of his favorite time to get ramen. Half-price from six to six-thirty.

Sakura's chest shook as she tried to hold in the giggling fit that the blonde had aroused in her, eyes scrunching shut. Until a hand planted itself firmly between her breasts and she discovered Gaara now looking at her with something akin to concern and...panic? She wasn't sure which emotion gained dominance in those few tense moments it took the young man to realize she was in no danger. Indignation over the hand that had been wedged between her breasts, touched that he was concerned about her, or giddy that he was concerned for her. Even as the Kazekage finally realized she was simply laughing quietly, not seizuring, his hand remained until a tactful throat-clearing from the kunoichi had him snatching it back.

'Gomen.' He mouthed, turning his face to the side to hide the light dusting of red on his cheeks. Of course, that embarrassment disappeared real fast at the sound of a masculine cough. "Just **what** were you thinking you were doing?"

Sasuke leaned against the wall, arms crossed and dark eyes boring holes into the young Kazekage. He kicked his still-sleeping companion, rousing the blonde into a fit of whining and cursing. "I know you weren't copping a feel."

Gaara leveled an emotionless look his way. "I hardly need an excuse so unrefined to, as you put it, cop a feel." His flicked a glance to the woman on the bed. "Besides, I do believe I'm more than entitled to a little payback after all the times I've been felt up."

Eyes bugged out as the Konoha boys flicked between staring at Gaara, and then Sakura. "Nani?!" Naruto burst out.

Their shock increased tenfold though when she reached out to smack the redhead on the shoulder. "That is for healing purposes only. Don't go giving them wild dream and imaginations. They hardly need it."

"I'm assuming this has something to do with a mission." Sasuke asked, pausing a brief moment before adding, "Leopard-san."

Sakura flinched as if he had physically hit her. Teeth sank into her lower lip and she looked resolutely at the covers on the bed. "I was going to tell you, really I was. I jsut didn't know how. I mean, we've always done everything together. Or the times when we didn't, it was usually you two progressing ahead of me. And with current situations being as they are, I know why you two are still at Chuunin. But...well the oppurtunity presented itself to me to advance and I wanted it so badly." Hot trails burned on her cheeks where tears were tracing down them. "I just...I really wanted to tell you but I didn't know how or how you'd take the news."

Fingers lifted her chin up. "You know, the only thing we're upset about is not being able to take you out for a drink in celebration." Naruto said simply, using his other hand to brush the tears off her face. "And perhaps for all the times you've dented our skulls." He added with a quirky grin.

"And ripped off our ears." Sasuke muttered.

"And blackened our eyes." Naruto chirped.

"Not too mention the time in Mist..." Sasuke added in.

"Alright alright, I get it! I was too rough." Sakura grinned, grabbing the blonde in a hug. "I'm just, really sorry I didn't tell you."

"You know, we're not boogeymen. Well...maybe the dobe over there is, but I'm not at least. You can always tell me anything." Cerulean eyes squinted to slits. "Unless of course its something along the lines of you marrying Sasuke or something. Because then I'd have to beat up my best friend."

"Ditto. As if you could though."

Moving slowly and carefully, Gaara inched towards the door. The scene being played out between the three friends wasn't for him to intrude upon. Not too mention, he didn't like the anger that rose up in him when Sakura grabbed Naruto in a hug. Or when they talked about her marrying one of the two. _They're not worthy of someone like her._ He growled in his mind, hand sliding up the wall to the handle of the door to the room. It clicked loudly as he turned it though, drawing the threesome's attention.

"Deer in the headlights." Sakura commented to the Kazekage's expression.

"Kakashi-sensei caught in the woman's locker room." Naruto chirped.

Both looked expectantly to the quiet Sharingan user. "Teme being told there was an all-you-can-eat ramen stand."

"Nani?! Are you serious?!"

"Moron."

Sakura shushed them, still watching the redhead. "Hey guys, can we talk tomorrow. I'm kind of worn-out and I still need to perform one final medical duty for the evening." The two mumbled their goodbyes, fixing a warning look on Gaara as they filed out. He returned it with his characteristic, emotionless mask.

A soft thumping noise drew his attention and he turned to see the woman patting the bed next to her. "Well, as I said, time to attend to business."

_Business she says. More like torture._ He scoffed to himself, gingerly settling himself on the bed as far from her as he could. At least, that was his intentions. Sakura, obviously, had other things in mind for him. He didn't think she could move so quickly, but one minute she was leaning against the pillows at the head of the bed while he perched precariously at the foot of the bed, the next she was sitting behind him with her legs to either side. Hands ran up his back to slide into his hair. "Think you can move over a bit. My ass is half-way off this thing." She grumbled, shifting with him as he obliged her. "I don't suppose I can talk you into resting for the night." He grumbled, trying to ignore how much he liked it when her hands ran through the blood-red strands.

She made an 'uh-uh' noise before lightly brushing her chakra into his head. "I needed a break from them. I can't face them fully yet, I still feel really bad." She 'hmm'ed' as her awareness spread over his mind, finding all the little tears and rips. She healed a couple of them, wincing when a low hiss of pain escaped the young man. And then she chanced across one that made her pause. It was fairly big, likely two or three inches long. Only, the location of it, was right where memories were stored. Even a light brush with her chakra, no healing, told her as much when an image of a young boy with a knife held over his wrist popped up.

"What. Was that?" Gaara growled, eyes gone wide as the image of himself at six years of age came unbidden.

"Remember how I told you about the side effects that may occur. Well, that was one of them. I can stop if you want, but there's another rip in that area of your brain." She said regretfully.

For once, Gaara chewed on his lower lip briefly. "Just do it and get it done with." He turned, fixing icy green eyes on her. "You will never speak of what you may see. And you will never show me pity." He vitually snarled. "If you do, I will kill you."

She nodded tensely, waiting till he was back in his original postion before begining. Pain exploded in his skull, blinding him momentarily with the ferocity of it as the woman sank into the unknown world of Gaara's past. Sakura gasped, trying desperately to hold onto her own reality while healing the moaning boy under her hands. But image after image whipped in front of her eyes, causing them to widen, the pupils to contract to near nothingness. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she saw murderous assassins attempting to kill a lonely child. That same child trying so hard to end his own life and misery. Children that ran away when he tried to help. The same children that whispered behind his back of what a monster he was and that they wished he would die. Adults that would say the same things. Then the image of a blonde man that first brought such a rush of love and happiness that for a moment, the woman held hope that not all of his past had been so brutal. Until the scene of that same man appeared, attempting to kill Gaara.

"Yashamaru..." Sakura heard distantly from Gaara. She didn't see the silvery lines that traced wet paths down his cheeks. The same tear tracks that were marking her own.

She tried to pull out, unable to take anymore as miserable scene after miserable scene played-out. She felt the pain of the burn of poisons, blades that were never quite fast enough to reach her...no his heart. The Konoha kunoichi couldn't believe how many cruel and twisted methods a person could come up with to try and kill someone, but they were all here. All locked into his mind. And then the tables turned. It wasn't his past she saw anymore. It was her own. She felt more then heard the man under her hands gasp.

Stones flew past their vision, the sharp cutting pain as they struck unprotected flesh. Children jeering and chanting at her as they continued to throw the projectiles. "No." She whispered, remembering that particular day, wincing in anticipation. Anticipation as the final hit came, from a boy a coupel years older then she had been then, as he threw a rock that knocked her out and would leave a three-inch gash just above her eye. A scene of her and Ino argueing, her parents argueing. She was shaking, she knew she was, but couldn't stop it. Gaara could only watch through the red haze of agony at a woman who had grown up with a difficult past. Not nearly so cruel as his own perhaps, though there were many forms of cruelty. He watched as she was socially out-casted from the other children over something so trivial as a large forehead. Though he personally didn't think she had anything of the sort. Even though no one attempted to kill her, he could feel both the physical and emotional pain the other children inflicted upon her.

"Sakura!!" The bellow her in her mind reverberated, doubling his pain. Even with his eyes closed though he watched as a bear of a man advanced on the girl who would become one of the greatest medics. She couldn't have been no more then seven in this memory. The pure ferocity though in the man's eyes had Gaara's lips curling back in a silent snarl and instinctively he sent out a lash of sand to keep him back. A vase in the room shattered to dust and the memory continued.

"Daddy...please no..." The little girl whimpered.

"No!" Sakura shrieked, using pure will force to rip herself out of the stranged connection between her and Gaara. She would not relive those memories. She would never let him see them.

The fell back away from each other, panting. Wide jade eyes turned to meet her emerald ones and already the woman could see the questions in them. She had never seen the redhead so open, his emotions so out on his sleeve, but she couldn't take advantage of it. "Don't pity me." She whispered, before clapping hands together and disappearing in a swirl of sakura petals.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

AN: Yay! Another short and rushed chapter that took me a year to make. Honestly, I had half written several months ago and I figured I can't keep you all waiting on my stories, so I kinda hurried through this one. I'll try to keep writing and for those of you who are reading my others, Dog Days is 75 percent done on the next chapter, Blood and Chocolate is about 50 percent, and Opposite Souls is inthe vicinity of 30-35 percent


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The wind whipped across her bare skin, stinging it with particles of sand. A mask protected her eyes as the huntress watched three distant figures wandering the sand dunes. She knew who they were, what they were here for. They were searching, searching for her. But she wasn't ready to be found, not yet. And especially not by **him**. They're voices carried on the wind, indistinct and too faint to make, not that she needed to hear them clearly to know exactly what they were saying. Two weeks now they had been tailing her, the only reason she hadn't been able to shake them was due to **his** abilities. _Damn the sand._ She thought fiercely, tearing her eyes from the trio. They had had to leave several times in their chase of her, needing to return to the village that she constantly kept within a day's travel time. But she would not return until she was ready too. And right now...she just couldn't. They couldn't understand, they wouldn't. This was something best left to herself. With one backwards glance, Sakura vanished into the dunes of the desert, always keeping ahead of her pursuers.

.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.

"Sakura-chan!"

"Haruno!"

The two Konoha ninja scanned the horizon, searching for their teammate. They had found signs of her last camp several hours ago, but no direct sign of the elusive woman. The third member of their party walked along beside them in silence, eyes closed and hand folded together as his third eye roamed the sand dunes before them. Two and a half weeks, such a short time that could cause such a drastic change in a person. It had not been until the fourth day of the medic-nin's disappearance from his village that Gaara had finally told her two friends she was gone. He had told them nothing of the cause of her vanishing act, could not tell them.

"Gaara, which way?" Naruto asked loudly, panic tinging his voice.

He held up one finger to his lips in a 'shh' motion, returning to concentrating. Something glinted in the light of the setting sun, a closer look revealing them to be the remains of a desert hare. He pointed in the direction of where the remains were after noting the masterful job done of skinning the small animal and gutting it. "Probably her lunch remains, looks to be about three hours old." He muttered, moving his third eye beyond the clue to finding the woman in hopes of finding another. It was rare to find something so obvious from her.

"Gaara, take a rest." Naruto said, much softer now. He was concerned for his friend, no doubt. The rings around the man's eyes had returned to pitch blackness as he refused to sleep in favor of looking for the pink-haired shadow. Food had been forsaken too on many occasions, leaving him looking on the gaunt side. "Me and Sasuke will keep looking, you need a break."

"No." _I have to find her. I caused this._ "I'm fine."

The two Konoha boys looked at each other and shrugged. Something in the redhead's eyes as he came to them for help had stopped them from asking what had happened. All attempts since then had only been met with silence. "You know," Sasuke started, eyes looking off distantly at the rolling sand dunes. "She's more then shown us she can survive out here on her own. And as me and the dobe both know, she's a lot stronger then she was." The Uchiha had to swallow his pride on that one. "Maybe if we just leave her alone, she'll come back when she's ready. And I can almost guarantee she's watching us right now. Without a Hyuugi, its pretty much hopeless to find her right now."

Gaara turned incredulous eyes on the black-haired boy, which is to say they were barely, slightly, minisculey widened. Naruto however sighed heavily and plopped down to the ground. "I was thinking the same thing. I was just hoping you wouldn't voice it. More then likely, we're just driving her self-exile longer by dogging her. You know how she is." A wry grin quirked his lips. "Besides, we're a week late returning home. And since the old bag doesn't have Sakura to send after us at the moment, you know what that means."

The tinkle of bells behind them had the three whipping around, weapons at the ready and sand rising. Two bells tinkled together as they were shook again, held in the leather-clad hand of a jonin. "It means, you two will be repeating the bell test." Kakashi drawled, nose buried in his infamous orange book. "And this time, you can't ruin the end of the book for me." He raised a happily creased eye, informing them he had a huge smile on his face. "I already finished it."

The two groaned heavily, cursing their bad luck. "Kakashi-sensei."

A serious cloud dispelled the happy eye-crease. "So, by 'she' and 'her', am I to assume you two are speaking of Sakura-chan?"

Conversation stopped as Gaara adjusted the gourd that lay heavily upon his back. "As Kazekage, I thank the two of you for coming to strengthen the alliance between our two respective villages. Please pass on my gratitude to the Hokage and my assurance I shall send a full message of your success. You may return home." He turned his back on the trio. "Return home, I will find her."

Naruto's mouth dropped open. How could he demand they leave?! "I'm not leaving un..."

"There's a sandstorm that will be here in thirty minutes." Cold jade eyes glanced back at them. "You can't survive it. But I can." _I will find her._ He added mentally.

.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.

The cave was hardly that, more like a shallow indent. But it was stone and would offer security from the storm she had spotted in the distance. Sakura pulled out the blanket she had been using to sleep on and hung it over the entrance, securing it to the ground with a pair of kunai. _I hope that holds. I think maybe I'm ready to head back. Maybe._ The stone was cold and unforgivingly hard, but she dare not light a fire because of the smoke and her only blanket was offering the only protection from keeping sand out. _The cold is good, keeps me awake._ And that was the important thing for her solitude. Not to be alone, but to stop the dreams. The nightmares. The ones that _**he**_ had awakened once more and the ones that had been newly put in her head. But she could feel how heavy her eyes were, how muddy her mind was working. She'd already gone three days without sleep. But, she figured if Gaara could do it, why not herself. Afterall, he was a simple human deep down just like herself.

_But then again, he didn't have much of a choice in whether to sleep or not. Hmm...when did the sand become so comfortable. Oh damn._ Her eyes slowed down in their blinking, closing to quickly and lifting too slowly. It seemed she needed to blink more often, her eyes refusing to stay open for an appropriate amount of time. She knew the exact moment she fell asleep. It was when he appeared, sand whipping into the meager shelter cruelly, before he shut it out once more. Wearily, emerald eyes went into doctor mode as they noted the gaunt, almost scraggly, look to the noble kage. He looked faintly skeletal. _Definately a dream. He's too vain to let himself go so much._ Her lips quirked up in a ghost of a smile. She almost felt like giggling. _Hmm, all that lack of sleep must have made me slap-happy. Maybe it'll keep the nightmares away._

He stared at her, slumped pitifully against the cold stone wall, obviously fighting off sleep. Dark circles ringed her eyes, eyes horribly bloodshot. "You know, I'm supposed to be the insomniac. Some medic you are." He commented dryly, moving to sit next to her.

Confusion shadowed in her eyes, showing to him just how exhausted she was. He narrowed his eyes dangerously as a bright smile lit up her face. "Hello!" Fingers moved with surprising speed to his cheek, pinching and pulling on it. "Hmm...you feel real."

Those same fingers set to work, poking and prodding at him. Gaara felt the muscle in the eye associated with irritation go into overdrive with twitching. "You're supposed to be an ANBU. Look at you and your condition, its pitiful. You're worthless like this." He snarled, smacking her hand away.

The sharp contact brought a change about the young woman so fast, the redhead had to do a double-take on her. The exhaustion vanished and a cold hardness filled her. Slack muscles went rigid, ready to spring into action. A feral snarl twisted her lips and she slowly rose to her feet. "I...am **not** worthless." Pure malicious venom dripped off every word. "Who are you to judge me, Sabaku no Gaara?! At least **I** have never died! At least **I** have never lost to Sasori."

Jade eyes had gone wide, not only from the very formidable amount of rage-filled chakra rolling off her, but also at how she was attacking him! His mouth opened, intending to show her who was the kage there, but she cut him off with more scathing words. "I am not pitiful. I am not worthless. I have more worth than someone like you, who can only kill. I can save lives. Tell me, Sabaku no Gaara, when was the last time you spared a life over taking it?" She bit out fiercely.

The young man stared at her, Sakura's last statement shocking him to the core. For one of only a very few times in his life, he was frozen into silence as he desperately wracked his brain for a time to prove her wrong. To his shame, he couldn't think of a single time. "Can't think of one can you, almighty Kazekage." She spat out. "Perhaps you should re-think who the worthless one of us is."

When all else fails, resort to anger. "I should kill you for speaking to me like that." Gaara seethed. How dare this girl presume to be so much better than he himself was.

Green fire lit in her eyes. How could he have assumed she had been helpless just moments ago? "Then do it. Prove to the world, the only thing you're good for is killing. Prove I'm right, that the only thing you can do, is kill." She raised her chin defiantely at him. And for the first time, Gaara saw the woman she had become.

"Hn."

A hopeless chuckle escaped her as she flopped back to the ground. "You're hopeless, you know that right?"

"Hn."

Her nose scrunched up. "I hate when you do that."

His lip twitched. "Hn."

Her hand reached out to flick him on the nose. She smirked at the dangerous look he sent her way. "I know, I know. You're going to kill me now."

Gaara didn't bother answering her, too absorbed in an internal debate raging in his heart and mind. _First she drives me to the brink of killing her, now I feel like laughing at her. I don't...understand._ Jade eyes narrowed as he puzzled over the dilemma. By all rights, he should crush her into nothingness. But that simple thought alone caused such a strong ache and negativity in his heart. "No." He mused, going over once more their little 'spat' from before. "I think...I shall spare your life."

Her mouth formed a perfect 'o' in wonderment, eyes going wide. "But...only this once." He added, granting her the benefit of seeing him smile. "And only, if you promise to never run away again. And return to your duties as my medic."

"I think I can handle that, if you guard my sleep tonight."

He quirked an invisible eyebrow. "Promise to return with me tomorrow."

Teeth flashed in a smile. "Cook breakfast for me." Sakura countered.

"File my paperwork."

"Train my medics."

Sakura frowned as a wicked aura surrounded the young Kazekage. "Marry me."

She coughed. Choked. Coughed some more. "Paperwork it is." She gasped out when she could. _He did NOT just say that, did he?_ Her mind scrambled, while the redhead chuckled softly.

_Why do I feel depressed she didn't keep up the debate? Its not like it was an actual request after all._ Gaara questioned as he leaned back against the far wall of the shallow 'cave', eyes trained on the opening that thrashed as wildly as it could at the power of the storm outside. A weight settled on his outstretched thighs and he looked down to see the dangerous, yet intriguing, woman laying down with her head in his lap. "Be my pillow." She murmured tiredly.

He waited, long into the night until he gave his response. "Stay with me always."

'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'

A.N: Wheeeee! Yeah yeah, I know. Its another short one. But be happy its not 5 months coming! Lol, I'll try and make the next one longer. Actually, I can guarantee it will be, because pasts shall be explored. Also, just so you know, I've started a new story. My first ever highschool one. And yes, its a Sakura pairing. Whoever can guess first what the pairing is, I'll make a special cameo of that person in one of my stories of their choice. Or just give them love cookies that can be traded in to make me write a chapter in whatever story they want. Ja ne loves.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

"Welcome back Haruno-sama." The head nurse greeted with a cheery smile behind the reception desk. "Good to see you back from your vacation. I've left all the reports and paperwork that need your signature since your absence in your office." The cheery smile now held just a hint of maliciousness in it.

_Probably saw this as a way to take some revenge on me for how hard I've been working everyone here._ Sakura thought tiredly, resisting the urge to rub her eyes. "Haruna-san did not return here to do paperwork that is late beyond an exceptable amount of time. As second-in-charge of this facility, you are more than capable to do such tasks yourself. See to it that those papers are completed before Haruna-san's return to this hospital or I will find someone who can."

The pure ice in the voice froze the look on the smirking nurse, only for it to melt to an expression of pure terror. "N-N-No, sir! I'll handle it r-right away, Kazekage-sama."

_I love you, Gaara._ Sakura thought blissfully, very nearly crying in happiness. "Now, I believe we came here for a reason." A hand on the small of her back propelled her forward until she started walking on her own. And then remained there.

So she tried to squirm away. The warmth was still pressed into her back. So she glared at the man beside her, only to have him completely ignore her in favor of casting a disinterested eye around the hospital as they padded down the corridors.

"Gaara. Remove your hand, or I will be forced to do so with a scalpel."

His lips twitched upwards faintly. "You'll just have to heal it then." But he did remove his hand as he came to a stop in front of a window. Inside the room, a nurse was bent over the ankle of a little boy while his mother stood to the side wringing her hands.

"Mm, one of my success stories. This is Mari, one of the worst excuse for a medic I'd ever seen employed to a clinic." Gaara frowned faintly at this, wondering just how badly things had been for his village. "She had no chakra control, no knowledge on anything medicinal. The best she could do, was stick a bandaid on a papercut. And I saw her screw that up once." Sakura watched as the nurse's hands began to glow green as they ghosted over the child's ankle and foot. "She's currently now healing a multiple fracture and is our leading attendant in the children's department."

They stood there and watched as the lady finished and patted the little boy on the knee, who immediately jumped down to test out his ankle. His mother swooped down on him and gathered the little boy in a hug, turning to the nurse and speaking what could only have been gratitude. A feeling of pride filled the red-haired man, seeing his medics being turned into something useful finally. His troops were now at 85 fighting capability, a number not reached in decades. Too often shinobi sent out on missions had come back injured and out of commission for weeks or months. Now, those same ninjas were being healed in a matter of minutes or hours. For the first time since the disastrous attack on Suna by Deidara, Gaara was confidant in the safety of his city.

"Gaara." Sakura called softly, a little way down the hall and looking into another room. Curious, he went to stand behind her to look in. Sakura took a sharp breath as he leaned slightly over her. _Personal space! Mmm, he smells good...Gah! Focus, focus, focus!_ "Look like you have a new life to protect, Kazekage-sama." They watched as the attending nurse placed a newborn into an empty crib in the nursery. "Four months ago, Suna had an estimated 45 deathtoll of al infants. Now, its down to 20 and still declining. Now that all the nurses and doctors here understand how to properly deliver a child into the world without infecting either the infant or the mother with bacteria." The nursery was empty save for three beds, something that still made Sakura frown. A city as large as Suna should have a nursery with nearly all the cribs filled constantly. But still, things were improving. They had not lost a life in a birthing for over two and a half months now. It was a promising thought.

"Its been...awhile." Gaara murmured."

"Hm?"

He rested a hand on the cool glass of the window, staring at the baby as it yawned. The nurse spotted them and bowed politely, placing a finger against her lips. Down the hall, a woman was walking arm-in-arm towards them. "You've read the reports. The population of Suna had been declining for the better part of two generations. Its been awhile since there's been hope for it to become the city it once was." He whispered, almost to himself.

The two fell silent as the couple stood beside them, not even sparing them a glance as they pointed and whispered to each other about the newest arrival. "I still think we should name him Ryo." The man smiled.

"Nope, I've decided on Kenchi." The woman flicked her eyes over to Sakura as the medic tried to walk away. "Oh, I'm sorry to disturb you! Which one is yours?"

"Mine?!" Sakura squeaked. "None of them are, I'm a medic here."

The new mother pressed a hand to her mouth. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought you and your husband..." She trailed off as she got a good look at just who was accompanying the pink-haired woman. "K-Kazekage-sama! Gomen, gomen! I didn't know."

Jade eyes flicked to her and away as the red-head simply started strolling further down the hallway, checking a room every now and then as Sakura apologized to the woman and sprinted after him. "You know, you could be nicer."

"I could also crush everyone in sand. I simply choose to do neither."

Her lip stuck out slightly as she pouted, catching his eye. "You could still be nicer. You're supposed to be a role model."

"Hn."

The lip stuck out further, before being pulled into a sly smile. "You're also supposed to talk."

"Hn."

She crossed her arms, nose scrunched adorably in a frown before she hip-bumped him. The action took him completely off-guard, sending him stumbling a couple steps to the side. He had a strong suspicion just a touch of chakra had been added to it. "We're here." Was her only reply to his murderous glare. She pulled a set of jingling keys from a pouch and proceeded to unlock the door she had knocked him towards.

Inside was a simple examination room, albeit a windowless one. Machines clicked and whirred occasionally from their dormant positions. "Strip off your shirt and sit on the table please." The Konoha woman ordered, slipping into a white lab coat.

He was half-way tempted to say no, but the argument ensuring was just too tedious for him at the moment to go through. He hated being subjected to tests and hospitals. "Why couldn't we do this in my room?"

Sakura clucked her tongue, picking up a clipboard and scribbling some basic preliminary notes onto the sheet attached to it. "I don't have the necessary supplies or equipment there. And its too much work trying to keep blood samples sterile while transferring them from one place to another." Emerald eyes looked over the top of the clipboard. "Your shirt still isn't off."

He resisted snarling at her as he reluctantly dropped his gourd to the ground with a loud 'thunk'. She raised an eyebrow, calmly shifting her weight as he took his time taking off and folding his coat and shirt. It wasn't until he had carefully arranged himself just so on the examination table that she walked forward briskly. "Hold out your left arm."

A low rumble issued from his chest as she pulled out and prepped a syringe. He hated needles. She had only told him she needed to run a couple tests, there and been no mention of needles! A flash of pain flitted across those brilliant green eyes when he flinched away from the soothing hand she laid on his arm. The audible grinding of teeth came to her ears. "Gaara, I need a blood sample. Its not going to hurt."

A harsh bark of laughter erupted from his throat. "That's what you all say." And then there's the agony of fire as you push poison into my system. And the misery of Shukaku's damage when I awaken. He flinched away again, forgetting completely he was free of the demon.

Her lips creased into a thin line and she grabbed his wrist. He growled, trying to wrench his hand back, but Sakura was Tsunade's apprentice for a reason. Instead of forcefully taking the blood though, she slapped the needle into his palm and let him go. "If you're going to be a child about this and insult me, then you can do it yourself."

"I. Am NOT, a child." He hissed back, tossing the needle aside. Jade eyes flew open wide as the room was spun to the left rapidly, one hand coming up to instantly cover his stinging right cheek.

Sakura slowly lowered her hand, hiding her shock at what she had done. A faint red outline of a handprint was already forming on his cheek. "Then stop acting like one, and let me help you." She whispered, adrenaline flooding her system as the young man looked at his hand before at her. "You know, you of all people shouldn't be so judgemental of someone because of how they look or where they work." Minute trembles wracked her body, a sign of a body wound tighter than a piano wire. If he made one threatening move, she was at least prepared to dodge it. Or die trying to.

"You struck me." Gaara murmured, eyes going to look at her incredulously. But on the edges, lurked something dark and deadly. "You truly have no fear for your life, do you? I should kill you." _Hmm, but then I'd lose your company_.

Her chin raised up defiantly at him. "Then do so, but don't underestimate me, Sabaku no Gaara."

The two stared at one another, the woman leaning casually against her desk in the room, the man sitting comfortably on the table. But the tension in their bodies could be seen in the wary eyes, the stiff set of shoulders. One waiting to see if they would be killed, the other deciding whether or not to kill the first. "Hn." A thin tendril of sand snaked its way from the gourd over to his wrist. A quick slash and blood began to slowly drip from the wound. "No needles."

Sakura sighed in relief before frowning and grabbing a vial to collect some of the droplets. "I swear, if this is contaminated..." A cap was screwed into place, sealing the deep crimson liquid inside. "Worse than Kakashi-sensei, I swear." A roll of gauze was quickly wrapped around the minor wound before she began to take fundamental observations, such as weight, height, and temperature. "At least with you I don't have to worry about getting the reaction I got with that one last time."

His brow creased in curiousity. "What reaction?"

"More difficult than pulling Genma away from a drunk blonde." The medic continued to mutter to herself, recording blood pressure.

"What reaction?" Gaara asked again, more forcefully.

The clipboard was tossed down and a hand on the shoulder forced him down on his back. "Men. And they say women whine and piss and complain too much."

"What reaction?!" He demanded louder, sitting up once more.

She stopped her rant and blinked at him. Then held out a wooden tongue depresser. "Open and I'll tell you." Black-lined eyes narrowed dangerously, but he did as he was told. "I mean I don't need to worry about you becoming aroused when we get to the physical part of this physical."

"Are you implying...I am unable to function?"

She gaped at him, mouth opening and closing repeatedly before she managed to squeak some words out. "What?"

"Are you implying, that I am unable to function as a male should?"

Again, her jaw unhinged and she was left incapable of speech for several long moments. "N-No! I just meant that, well, you have more control than most men. And besides, I've never even seen you look at a female like that. Not that I notice that sort of thing or anything like that, just a casual observation. I mean, what you do on your free time is your own thing." Oh god I'm rambling, someone help me.

Gaara coughed, just enough to catch her attention and shut her up. "So, you think I'm...gay?"

It really was becoming quite annoying how easily he could rob her of something so basic as speech. Or breath for that matter. "Why would you think that?!"

He sighed, as if it were the simplest thing in the world to answer. "You stated that you did not need to worry about me becoming aroused since no female excites me. You think I am attracted to men, am I correct?"

Her face blazed bright red, and she could swear the room was getting warmer and warmer. "No! I meant you can control yourself more than any other man. And I simply stated that I've never known you to pursue ANY relationship or attraction to anyone."

The medic could no longer see his face for any clue what he was thinking, not that there would have been any emotion on that face anyway. He was looking down and to the right, as if thinking something over carefully. "Perhaps...I was waiting." His voice had dropped lower, turning huskier. And when she finally caught a glimpse of his eyes, they a deepened to an inky teal. "For the right person."

Her mouth went dry and she took a step back as he slid off the table. Her back bumped against her desk as her heart started to pound, Gaara keeping his eyes locked on her as he steadily advanced. _Oh shit! Why does it feel like I'm a mouse staring at a very hungry tiger?_ The redhead finally stopped, inches from her. Sakura could feel the heat pouring off him. He leaned in closer, until his lips were close enough to graze her ear when he spoke next. "I believe you need to finish the exam, doctor."

A smirk spread across those damning lips. "And maybe I will...surprise you."

--o--o--o--o--o--o--

A.N- Wheeee! Who loves cliffies?! I Do! So yeah, I have been writing, just I seriously buckled downt his week to grind out a chapter. I know, I know. It takes me forever to write, but at least I'm updating, ne? So hush up y'all! -shifty eyes- Anywho, can't guarantee when next chapter will be done. I should really update one of my other stories. And I've been thinking of doing a oneshot. So yeah, enjoy and all criticism is appreciated. And its defined in chapter 1 AN what is acceptable criticism. Take care y'all!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

She was drowning in a sea of purest jade. And she was loving every moment that was slowly crawling by. He had pulled back the slightest bit to watch her eyes widen at his implications. They drew downwards as her tongue darted out to lick along her lower lip. The switch in attention didn't pass by the woman unnoticed and she repeated the action, this time slower. Sakura knew she was playing with fire, but for once, she wanted to get burned. She took in a deep breath, pushing out her chest so her breasts pressed against his chest. _If he wants to play, I'll play back._ His breath hitched sharply at the contact and she trailed cool fingers over his abdomen to the fishnet shirt he still wore. "Your breathing. I need to check it." She whispered, slowly sliding the tips of her fingers under the shirt and moving it up.

Gaara watched her, unable to move. This was not how things were supposed to be! He was supposed to be the one teasing, but some how, things had gone farther than he had intended. He couldn't stop the tiny muscle tremors that wracked through his body where ever one of her fingers would accidently slip and caress the pale skin of his chest and stomach. It was a torture more horrible than any he'd ever endured before. He wanted her to hurry up, and at the same time slow down and draw it out. He hissed as a stray nail grazed against a nipple long-gone hard, both her hands working now to pull the article up and over his head. The women lightly raked her nails down his back as she pushed the material off and let it drop to the ground, causing the young man to arch.

Cool lips pressed to his collarbone as she leaned forward, a hitch soundly sharply in Gaara's breathe at the contact. He felt the pink-haired woman smile against him, and then a slight wetness as her tongue darted out, _tasting him!_ Movement crashed back into him as he grabbed her around the waist, drawing a startled look from her before his mouth crashed down onto hers. And did nothing. Emerald eyes stared at him, before another small smile formed on her lips under his. Gaara had never been kissed before.

Her hands trailed lazily up his back, nails scratching lightly as she moved her mouth against his, showing him. His grip on her hips tightened and he walked them backwards slowly, eyes sliding shut, until he felt the metal edge of the table against his thighs. Her tongue darted out to playfully lick as his lips, followed by a nip to his lower lip that had him gasping. She took advantage, wrenching a groan from deep within his chest when she slid her tongue along his. He dug nails into the fabric of her lab coat, hauling the petit woman closer until they were pressed together. One arm snaked around her waist, anchoring her there.

Finally he pulled back, gasping for breath. The redhead shivered under the look Sakura was giving him, and for the first time he understood what all those victims must have seen before he killed them. Like prey staring into the face of the predator. And he was her target. He stilled, eyes widening slightly when she stepped back and out of his grip, something painful lancing through his heart at the thought she was going to just leave. Until her hands came up to shrug out of her lab coat, allowing it to pool at her feet.

_I shouldn't be doing this. Not like this._ Sakura thought to herself, even as she undid the top two buttons on her shirt, enjoying the way the normally stony man's eyes were giving everything away in that moment. How they widened and then darkened with desire. _I can't be…but the way he kissed. I'm sure of it._ She herself was no virgin. She'd had plenty of relationships, several of which had been serious. But none of them had been just right. However, the medic was more than certain that the man before her was a different story. _Well, it does make sense. He was feared and loathed for more than half his life. The other half, well he's always been cautious of other's motives. He'd never go for the ones wanting his title more than him._

He watched as agile fingers kept working down the shirt, unable to look away. Distantly he was aware of an increasing discomfort as his pants became tighter, but none of that mattered as the second layer of clothing was dropped to the floor as well. There was no bra to make a third layer. None of it mattered until she had walked back to him and pressed her body along his, pulling him into a frenzied kiss. The only thing that mattered in that moment was the feel of naked skin against his own and what she was doing with her tongue. He groaned, deeper this time, as she lifted one leg to half-wrap around his waist, half-lay on the table behind him, pressing herself against the sizeable bulge in his pants. His hips bucked involuntarily against the contact and he pulled the woman closer, tighter against him, rewarded with a gasp that turned into a moan from the medic.

The man slid his hands down past her hips to hook under her thighs as he straightened, eyes dark and wild as he reversed their positions, sitting her down on the edge of the table. Her fingers were already working at his belt, tugging it open and pushing cloth down off his waist. All while the devilish temptress watched him, eyes darkened to a smoldering forest green. Her tongue darted out to lick along her lower lip, causing the man in front of her to groan.

"Witch." He hissed when he watched her dance fingers up her taught belly to circle around one breast, and then the other, pain lacing his voice as he felt the fabric of his boxers digging painfully into his member as it grew harder at the erotic imagine she painted for him.

She mewled underneath him as he stepped back between her legs, lips crashing down onto hers and tongue demanding entry. _Quick learner._ She thought before her senses were washed away as his hands moved to caress her breasts. The woman arched her back, pushing the firm globes of flesh into his hands as Gaara kneaded them. Her legs snaked around him, locking the young man firmly to her body as she moaned under him.

He ground himself painfully against her, absently realizing she still wore a skirt and some tiny scrap of cloth beneath that and himself still in boxers. A touch of heat swept across his cheeks and a sudden shyness stopped him from removing those last articles. "Gaara…" He tensed at the breathy whisper that caused a delicious shiver to travel down his spine and tighten things lower down. Sakura pulled herself closer to him, wrapped arms around his neck to bring her lips to his ear. "I want you." Her tongue darted out to lick the shell of his ear, earning herself a husky groan from the man.

She leaned back away from him against the examination table, eyes roving over him like a lioness eyeing its next meal. Delicate hands slid down her waist and she unwrapped her legs from around him to slide her skirt down her legs, Gaara following its progress until the medic flicked it away with one foot.

His eyes roamed back up, taking in the long, creamy legs and the scrap of black lace that was all that remained. Nervousness washed through him, paralyzing him temporarily. Something must have shown in his face because Sakura sat up, pressing her palm to his cheek, stroking along the line of his jaw. "I'll show you." She whispered huskily.

He swallowed and nodded, shivering as cool fingertips pressed against his collarbone and trailed downward. His eyes flew open wide, pupils dilated to nearly full black, as she cupped and stroked his clothed hardness. He gasped, grabbing the edge of the table to steady himself as she massaged and stroked along his length. He was bigger than she had thought, even through the thing cloth she could tell.

One hand went to gently push him back a couple steps, enough so that she could slide off the table to stand on the floor. _The first should be more than just a quick rut on top of an exam table._ She thought to herself, before sliding the last cloth barrier off him, dropping to her knees with it. Hazy jade eyes looked down, confusion flickering in them as the young man watched her.

"Wha-KAMI!" His head flung back, hands burying in her silky hair as her tongue stroked from base to tip in a warm, wet line.

His legs trembled slightly with the effort to stay standing as her mouth closed over him and slowly sucked down, inching more of his length into her. He cried out as her tongue swirled and stroked along his shaft and he fought the urge to just bury himself to the hilt in that warm, wet cavern. She moaned around him, as if he were a piece of chocolate melting on her tongue, the vibrations tearing her name from his lips in a ragged cry.

His hips bucked as she pulled back and the woman obliged him, bobbing her head up and down. "God…" He panted as she took him in and out faster, one hand pumping where her mouth wasn't, quickly bringing him to the brink. He growled in frustration as Sakura stopped and pulled back to stand up, the man ready to demand she finish what she started and not tease him.

"I need you, Gaara."

He kissed her, plundered her mouth as if he were dying of thirst and she was water. Calloused hands ran down her back, over the smooth curves of her rear, and back up to tear the lacy thong away. He hoisted her up, hands splayed to support her under her thighs, and pressed against her wet core. She moaned deliciously for him as she was set on the table once more, reaching down to help guide him into her entrance. He shoved himself inside, hissing in pain and pleasure at the tightness and the friction as the pink-haired woman writhed underneath him, nails sinking into his back.

Bloody lines were drawn down his spine as he dragged himself out, roughly pounding back into the woman underneath him. The part of him not given to the animalistic need to rut senselessly told him to go slow, be patient. Soft hands pressed to either side of his face and he opened eyes he hadn't realized were close. "Let go." Sakura whispered encouragingly, gasping as he pushed back inside her. His name fell from her lips and he lost himself, mindlessly thrusting into her as fast and deep as he could.

She clung to him, teeth sinking into the soft spot where his neck met his shoulder, earning a startled cry from the man. The frantic pace he had set faltered as every sensation came together, driving the young man up to an edge, dangling him before another sharp bite on the other side of his neck sent him tumbling over, thrusting twice more hard and fast, emptying himself into the woman beneath him.

He caught himself on his elbows, not totally slumping onto and crushing the woman beneath her, and waited for gravity to bring him back to earth. Delicate hands ran up and down his back as they both relaxed in the afterglow, stopping to administer a touch of healing to the bloody furrows before the euphoric feeling faded and left them stinging. Soft lips brushed against her temple and she looked up into Gaara's eyes, smiling before leaning up to press a gentle kiss to his lips. "Next time, I get to be on top."

AN: Omg, could it be?! A finished chapter! SO yeah, lot of crazy stuff in my life, didn't have much time but I spat out another chapter. Let's see if I can get another one out! Lol. Btw, trying my hand at a Transformers fic too right now. Who can guess the pairing?!


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